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THE 



DISCOURSES AID ESSAYS 



REV. J. H. MERLE D'AUBIGNE, D.D., 

PRESIDENT OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, GENEVA - , AUTHOR OF THE "HIS- 
TORY OF THE GREAT REFORMATION," &C. 



INTRODUCTION 



BY ROBERT BAIRD, D.D 



TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH 

BY CHARLES W. BAIRD. 



L 



N E W YORK: 
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 

82 CLIFF STREET. 



184 6. 



KR&s" 
.1%] 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by 

Harper & Brothers, 
In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York. 



INTRODUCTION. 



It may not be amiss to give the reader, in a few 
words, some account of the history and contents of this 
volume. 

For several years the desire has been entertained 
and expressed by many in this country to have a vol- 
ume in English of such of the occasional Essays and 
Discourses of Dr. Merle d'Aubigne as are of a general 
nature ; aod three years ago the subscriber gave assu- 
rances to the public that the task of selection and trans- 
lation would be undertaken by him, or under his auspi- 
ces, at no distant day. But circumstances which it is 
not necessary to state for a long time prevented the 
accomplishment of this purpose. He is happy, howev- 
er, to say that the work has at length been executed, 
and the result the reader will find in this volume, con- 
taining seventeen Discourses and Essays. 

A few of these productions have at one time or an- 
other been translated into English, and published sepa- 
rately in England or this country, and some in both, 
either in small volumes or in pamphlets. But the great- 
er part are now given to the public for the first time, 
in an English translation. 

One of these Discourses and Essays was translated by 
a niece of the Author, and appeared in the Biblical Re- 
pository for January, 1845. It is entitled Lutheranism 
and Calvinism. Another, Geneva and Oxford, was 
translated by another friend, and was first published in 
this country in the organ* of one of our religious soci- 
eties, in 1843. A third, The Study op the History op 

* Quarterly Paper of the Foreign Evangelical Society. 



IV INTRODUCTION". 

Christianity, was translated by the late and greatly-la- 
mented Thomas S. Grimke, Esq.. of Charleston, S. C. 
The permission to use it has been kindly granted by the 
original publisher, and is here gratefully acknowledged. 

The other fourteen have all been translated expressly 
for the present volume. And although it does not be- 
come me to say much about the manner in which the task 
has been executed, I think that I may safely assure the 
public that it has been performed with all reasonable 
fidelity. The meaning of the Author has been consci- 
entiously given, and, it is believed, with proper ease and 
clearness of expression. Doubtless, a French idiom, or 
an approach to one, may be occasionally discovered ; 
but these things, when they do not render the sense 
obscure, rather excite the attention and interest of the 
reader than otherwise, by breaking up the monotony of 
ordinary style. 

AH of these Discourses and Essays bear the impress 
of the same masterly mind which beams forth on every 
page of the Author's inimitable History of the Great 
Reformation in the Sixteenth Century. The first 
six Discourses were delivered to a French church in 
Hamburg, in Germany. The others were preached at 
Brussels and Geneva. Of the Essays, all but one were 
read in the last-named city, at the opening of the ses- 
sions of the Theological Seminary, of which the Author 
is the president. 

The same simple, beautiful, and perfectly philosophi- 
cal analysis runs through each of these productions. 
The same clear statement, the same rapid and effective 
mode of reasoning which characterizes the French 
mind ; and the same resistless driving onward to a con- 
elusion which often strikes and surprises us by the sud- 
denness with which we are brought upon it. The 
formal and tedious syllogism does not suit the Gallic 



INTRODUCTION. V 

mind ; it more befits the Anglo-Saxon, the Norman, and 
the German. 

These Discourses are very different from our Amer- 
ican sermons. No one can read a page of them with- 
out being struck with this fact. There is a vivacity 
and point in the style, a condensed and penetrating 
statement of the leading ideas, a rapid discussion of each 
topic, and an abrupt dismissal of it, which are unknown 
to our modes of thinking and writing. This very cir- 
cumstance will render their perusal profitable, in no or- 
dinary degree, to those among us whose office it is to 
preach the Gospel. At the same time, they are such 
as can not be read without advantage by the layman. 

As to the Essays, it would be hard to find in any 
language an equal number that can be compared with 
them. Take, for instance, those on the Study of the 
History of Christianity, the nature and tendency of Pu- 
seyism, # the duty of the Church to confess Christ, Lu- 
theranism and Calvinism, and The Miracles or two Er- 
rors. Where shall we find the subjects there treated 
handled with such ability ? 

These Discourses and Essays possess one grand 
characteristic : that of a glorious baptism, if I may so 
express myself, into the spirit of the Reformation. This 
spirit pervades them all ; but it is most manifest in the 
Essays. Of all men of this age, it may be safely said, 
Dr. Merle d'Aubigne is the most thoroughly imbued 
with the spirit of the Reformers. In fact, he hardly lives 
in the present era, though he does move bodily about 
among the men of our times. Sure I am, his mind, his 
heart, his whole spiritual man, is, at least, as much con- 
versant with the events and spirit of the age of the Re- 
formers as with those of our day. 

As to the Author, I have been importuned to give 
* Geneva and Oxford. 
A2 



VI INTRODUCTION. 

some notice of him in this Introduction. But it is not 
the place to say more than a few words. 

Dr. Merle d'Aubigne,* though born in Geneva, is, 
like many of the inhabitants of that " City of Refuge," 
of French origin. His great-grand-father, John Louis 
Merle, emigrated, for the sake of his religion, from 
Nismes to Geneva, about the epoch of the revocation 
of the Edict of Nantes. His son, Francis Merle, in the 
year 1743, married Elizabeth d'Aubigne, a daughter of 
Baron George d'Aubigne, a Protestant nobleman who 
resided in that city, and who was a descendant of the 
celebrated Chevalier Theodore Agrippa d'Aubigne, 
whose memoirs have been recently published in this 
country ;f a faithful but poorly-rewarded adherent of 
Henry IV., a decided Protestant, a brave cavalier, a 
prolific author; the grand-father of Madame de Mainte- 
non, mistress and w 7 ife of Louis XIV. ; and in his old 
age was exiled to Geneva for his religion by the un- 
grateful race for whose elevation to the throne of France 
he had spent twenty long years and more in the camp. 
It is from his paternal grand-mother that Dr. Merle de- 
rives the addition of D'Aubigne to his name. 

The immediate progenitor of our Author was Aime 
Robert Merle d'Aubigne, born in 1755. He was the 
father of three sons, the eldest and the youngest of 
whom are respectable merchants in our country, one in 
New- York, the other in New-Orleans. The death of 
this excellent man was most deplorable ; for he was 
murdered by the Austrians and Russians, near Zurich, 
in the autumn of 1799, as he was returning from a com- 
mercial mission to Constantinople and Vienna. Falling 
in with these infuriated troops, a day or two after the 
decisive defeat which the French under Massena had 

* He received the degree of Doctor in Divinity from the College of ISew 
Jersey,, in 1838, t Under the title of The Huguenot Captain. 



INTRODUCTION. Vll 

given them, he was inhumanly slain. He left a widow, 
who with faith and courage contended against adversity, 
brought up well her three sons, gave them all a liberal 
education in the city of their birth, lived to see them far 
advanced in their various careers, and died in peace 
on the 11th of January last, at an age exceeding four 
score. 

Dr. Merle d'Aubigne was born in the year 1794; he 
is therefore in his 52d year at present. He is a tall, 
erect, fine-looking man, of dark complexion, black eyes, 
and commanding mien. His health is by no means 
good ; but his energy is indomitable. He has just pub- 
lished the fourth volume of his admirable History of the 
Reformation ; to complete this work will require at least 
two, if not three or four volumes more. 

In the autumn of 1817 or 1818, our Author, having 
completed his studies at the Academy or University of 
Geneva, went to Berlin, where he spent some time en- 
gaged in theological and historical pursuits under the 
guidance of the celebrated Neander, and other distin- 
guished professors of the University in that city. On 
his way thither he visited the Castle of Wartburg, near 
Eisenach ; and while standing in the room in which 
Luther spent almost a year, as a sort of prisoner, the 
thought came into his mind to write the History cf the 
Reformation. That thought soon became a settled pur- 
pose ; it gave direction to all his subsequent feelings, 
studies, and aims. 

From Berlin he went to Hamburg, where he preach- 
ed for five years and more to a small French Protestant 
church. It was there he preached and published the 
first six sermons which are contained in this volume. 

From Hamburg he removed to Brussels, where he 
preached to a Protestant church until the Revolution of 
September, 1830, which severed Belgium from Holland. 



Vlll INTRODUCTION. 

As he was a great favorite with the late King of Hol- 
land, who heard him with much regularity when he 
came to the Belgian capital of his kingdom, he was not 
likely to meet with favor from the revolutionary party. 
In fact, he narrowly escaped death on that occasion. 
Returning to his native city soon afterward, he took up 
his abode there, and was appointed President of the new 
Theological Seminary which was founded by the Ge- 
neva Evangelical Society in the year following. There 
he has resided ever since. 

With these remarks and notices, the volume which 
they are intended to introduce is commended to the fa- 
vorable regards of the Christian public. 

R. Baird. 

New York, April, 1846. 



TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 



The preparation of the work here presented to the 
public was announced about two years ago in the trade 
lists of the publishers. Various causes have hitherto 
retarded its appearance, but it is believed that through 
this delay the translation has been improved, and made 
more worthy of the circulation to which the name of 
the author of these Discourses and Essays entitles it. 

Within a few days, a volume containing several dis- 
courses by Dr. Merle d'Aubigne, and prefaced with a 
notice of the author by the Rev. Dr. Baird, has been 
published in this city. As it would naturally be inferred 
by the public that the book in question was sanctioned 
by the writer of the foregoing Introduction, the transla- 
tor thinks proper to state that it has been published 
without Dr. Baird's knowledge or consent. The notice 
alluded to is a re-publication of one written by him 
some years ago, as an introduction to a little book enti- 
tled " Puseyism Examined," and containing but one of 
Dr. Merle d'Aubigne's Discourses. 

Beyond removing the misunderstanding which was 
likely to result from this fact, the translator does not 
deem it necessary to do more than allude to this pub- 
lication, which is mainly composed of discourses which 
have already appeared either in this country or in Eng- 
land. The translation of the work herewith given to 
the public has been authorized by Dr. Merle d'Aubigne, 
was undertaken for his express advantage, and embra- 
ces, as the reader has been informed in the Introduction, 
many Discourses and Essays never before published in 
English. 

New York, April, 1846. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

I. Emmanuel : a Discourse . . . . •> . 13 

II. The Cross op Jesus Christ : a Discourse . . .31 

III. The Publication op the Gospel : a Discourse . . 51 

IV. The Service of Jesus Christ : a Homily . . .67 
V. The Duties of Masters to their Households : a Dis- 
course 84 

VI. The Work of Salvation : a Homily .... 102 
VII. Of the Character essential to the Theologian, and 
to Christians in general, in the Present Day : a 

Discourse 123 

VIII. The Church called to confess Jesus Christ : a Dis- 
course 148 

IX. The Confession of the Name of Christ in the Six- 
teenth and Nineteenth Centuries : a Discourse . 170 
X. Lutheranism and Calvinism ; their Diversity essen- 
tial to their Unity : an Essay . . . . . 200 
XI. The Study of the History of Christianity, and its 

Usefulness in the Present Day : a Discourse . . 245 
XII. Geneva and Oxford : a Discourse 273 

XIII. Faith and Knowledge : a Discourse . . " . . 316 

XIV. The Voice of the Ancients to the Men of the Nine- 

teenth Century ; or, Read the Book : an Essay . 335 
XV. The Voice of the Church, One, under the successive 

Forms of Christianity : a Discourse . . . 367 

XVI. Family Worship : a Discourse 400 

XVII. The Miracles ; or, Two Errors : an Essay . . . 420 



DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS, 
I. EMMANUEL. 

A DISCOURSE. 

" Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and 
they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with 
us."— Matt., i., 23. 

The union of man with God is the great work which 
true religion was to accomplish. Any religion that has 
not this object, and that does not provide the means 
necessary to attain it, thereby becomes useless and vain. 
This union is not designed to qualify us to reason con- 
cerning God, to define His nature, to expatiate on all 
His attributes ; this is not the aim which true religion 
should have in view, whatever philosophers may think. 
Neither does it imply the paying of an external homage 
to the Divine Being ; approaching Him with genuflec- 
tions, in processions, or through sacrifices ; such is not 
the aim which true religion should have in view, how- 
ever the vain superstitions of nations may have repre- 
sented it. It is not the discovery of certain principles, 
which may be considered the expression of the Creator's 
will, nor their presentation as rules of conduct to the 
creature; this is not the object which true religion should 
have in view, though it is in this that moralists discern 
its essence. Some of these things may follow, but it is 
with something else that we must begin. A greater 
work must be accomplished — man must be united to 
God. Of what value is all his learning, his worship, or 

B t 



14 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

his morality, while he does not sincerely love Him whom 
he ought to know, to adore, and to follow ? Man is 
separated from God : this is one of the fundamental 
truths of our history ; one of the great.explanatory prin- 
ciples of our nature ; one of those great facts to which 
the conscience of every man testifies. In vain is man 
ignorant of the origin of this fact ; he knows and feels 
its existence ; and whenever the wants of his soul are 
awakened, whenever he listens to that secret voice 
which sometimes speaks to remind him of the primitive 
nobility of his nature, he sighs for a union the want of 
which he then knows and feels. As a child is said to 
be separated from his father when he has revolted 
against him, has left his house, entertains wrong senti- 
ments toward him, and delights in doing what he dis- 
approves : so it must be said that man, in the state in 
which we know him, is separated from his God. And 
as such a child should, first of all, be reconciled and re- 
united to his father : so man should, first of all, be recon- 
ciled and reunited to his God. There can be no order, 
no justice, no peace, no happiness, while such a disunion 
exists. To effect this reunion is the object of Christi- 
anity. It is the work which God has had in view ; and 
this day reveals* to us the means wherewith He sees 
fit to accomplish it. God has come into the world to 
reconcile us unto Himself. The birth of Jesus Christ is 
the link which connects that which was separated. On 
that day, Emmanuel was given to us ; on that day, this 
oracle of an ancient prophet, repeated by the Evange- 
list in the words of our text, was fulfilled : " Behold, a 
virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, 
and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being 
interpreted is, God with us." That day was the epoch 
of the union of man with God. "We will consider with 

* This discourse was delivered on Christmas. 



EMMANUEL. 15 

you the principle of this union, viz., that God has been 
with us ; and the consequence of this principle, viz., that 
we should be with God. Thus, the principle and the 
consequence, 

God with us, and we with God, 

will form the two divisions of this meditation. 

And Thou, who didst come in the flesh to reconcile 
unto Thyself the fallen race of man, grant Thy blessing 
upon the words of our lips ; that, while displaying unto 
the minds of many what Thou hast done, this day may 
become for them the day of an everlasting covenant 
with Thee ! Amen. 



GOD WITH US. 

God has been with us ; this, my brethren, is the great 
truth which we proclaim unto you ; and perhaps it is a 
truth entirely new to some, who, though they may often 
have heard it before, have never yet understood it. 
God has been with us. In uttering these words, we do 
not make use of figurative language, but we mean sim- 
ply what we say. God Himself became flesh, and a 
man like ourselves. The day which we commemorate 
is that on which the Eternal Being humbled Himself, 
and appeared among men in the form of a child. Do 
these assertions seem extraordinary or inadmissible? 
We have the means of proving them. We have not 
lightly advanced them ; we can dissipate the smallest 
doubt in the mind of any one who still respects the in- 
fallible word of God. 

In that Jesus of Nazareth, whose birth we commem- 
orate to-day, and who was crucified thirty-three years 
later, under Pontius Pilate, dwelt all " the fulness of the 



16 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

Godhead."* It was not an angel, nor an archangel, nor 
any creature, who put on human nature in the person 
of Jesus Christ, but it was God. This, my brethren, is 
a fundamental and immovable truth, which the word of 
God displays in all its splendor. We do not wish to 
accumulate here all the quotations we might make to 
prove it. One alone might suffice. A few ought to be 
enough. Consider, then, first, the words of our text ; it 
were difficult to find any more clear : " They shall call 
his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God 
with us." From the Gospel according to Matthew, 
from which our text is taken, turn, I pray you, to the 
Gospel according to John, and you will see that it be- 
gins thus : " In the beginning was the Word, and the 
Word was with God, and the Word was God. All 
things were made by Him, and without Him was not 
any thing made that was made. And the Word was 
made flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth."f 
From the Gospel according to John, turn to the Epistle 
of Paul to the Romans, and you will read these words : 
" Whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the 
flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forev- 
er.";]; Pass on to the first Epistle to Timothy, and you 
will find this beautiful testimony : " Without controver- 
sy, great is the mystery of godliness : God was manifest 
in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preach- 
ed unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received 
up into glory."§ And conclude, if you please, with the 
first Epistle of John, at the end of which you will read: 
" We are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus 
Christ. This is the true God and eternal life."H Thus, 
God has been manifested in the flesh ; we can not be- 
lieve in the word of God without believing in this truth. 

* Col., ii., 9. t John, i., 3, 14. X Rom., ix., 5. 

$ 1 Tim., iii., 16. || 1 John, v., 20. 



EMMANUEL. 17 

But can not the very nature of the work which was 
to be accomplished make us feel beforehand that God 
Himself would come, and would give to no other being 
so great a charge ? It was indeed for no work of slight 
importance that He was manifested in the flesh. It 
was not to found some sect of philosophy ; it was not 
to teach some precepts which He could have delivered 
unto men quite as well through one of His prophets. If 
He was with us, it was to save the human race which 
was lost ; to restore life to the dead ; to transport to 
heaven what had been the prey of hell. That was a 
greater work than all that had been done till then, and 
one which required nothing less than the immediate 
interposition of Divinity. Assuredly, to create beings 
was a wonderful work ; but to save beings who already 
existed, and whose lot was everlasting misery, was a 
still more important and wonderful work. And since 
God had of Himself executed the work of creation, why 
should He not of Himself have accomplished that of 
redemption? Why would He have left to another 
the glory of saving the world, while He left to no other 
that of creating it ? Assuredly, to preserve the life of 
the body, as God does daily by His providence, is a 
wonderful work ; but to restore the life of the soul to 
those who had lost it, to make those who were dead 
unto God live unto Him, was a still more important and 
wonderful work. And why should not God, who of 
Himself performs the very smallest work necessary for 
the preservation of the body which perishes, come Him- 
self when the spirit, which can not perish, is to be re- 
stored to life ? Why should He leave the care of these 
things to one of His servants ? Ah ! that was precisely 
the work which He was to fulfil Himself; for it was 
emphatically the work of charity. I could perhaps im- 
agine that he might have given to others the execution 

B2 



18 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

of the work of power at the day of creation ; but He 
was Himself to accomplish, at the day of redemption, 
the work of love. He might give to another His power, 
but not His mercy. 

And who but God could perform this work ? Who 
but He sufficed for the things which were to be the 
foundation of our eternal redemption 1 Sinful creatures 
were to be placed in possession of felicity and glory. 
But did the sovereign holiness of Him who weighs in 
His balance the least iniquity, allow Him thus to raise 
sinful man ? All the attributes of God must, in all His 
actions, be entirely satisfied, and fully manifested ; you 
will find, on reflection, that in this consists all His per- 
fection. But had He simply, by an act of His power, 
restored all sinful creatures to eternal happiness, would 
not this act, instead of displaying His holiness, have cov- 
ered it with a thick cloud ? He was therefore not con- 
tent with raising up man, but at the same time He 
abased Himself; He became like unto a servant, so that 
the humiliation of Divinity should justify the elevation 
of humanity, and that the same deed which revealed His 
mercy should also proclaim His holiness in the eyes of 
all creation. But if such are the means by which our 
redemption was to be effected, who but God could ac- 
complish it? What being, by his abasement, could 
have justified the elevation of sinful humanity ? Who, 
by his sufferings, could ever have deserved to receive, 
as a reward, the salvation of the whole guilty creation ? 
Who has not yet so much to answer for as to make it 
impossible for him to enter the lists, to answer for sinful 
man ? No creature could have come forward for such 
a purpose. The Everlasting Word alone could do it. 
He alone was to become flesh. 

He became flesh. He was with us, and like one of 
us. He endured all we endure. He dwelt among us, 



EMMANUEL. 19 

full of grace and truth. He was obedient even unto 
death. And those who were His friends bear witness 
that they beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-be- 
gotten of the Father.* 

God has been with us; and He is yet with us. After 
having dwelt here below in the flesh, as the Represent- 
ative of the whole human race, to procure salvation for 
it, He is now here in the Spirit, as Prince and Pro- 
tector, to give the possession of that eternal salvation 
to it. Such is the important meaning of these words : 
"If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God 
by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, 
we shall be saved by His life."f Since Jesus Christ 
became flesh, God continually stoops down to the most 
wretched of His creatures. There is now nothing more 
that can separate God from man ; our very sins can not 
repel Him ; on the contrary, it is on their account that 
He came. 

Nevertheless, great as the position is which this truth 
occupies in the Christian revelation, we know that it 
encounters much unbelief in our hearts. We do not 
deceive ourselves, dear brethren ; we do not suppose 
that it is sufficient for us to announce this truth from 
the pulpit, to have you believe it; and as we desire to 
preach to you not merely for the sake of form, but truly 
to lead your spirits captive unto the obedience of faith — - 
as " I say these things, that ye might be saved," J and as 
we value our words only in proportion to the convic- 
tion which they may carry with them in your minds* 
we ask you, What hinders you from believing, with sin- 
cere and firm faith, without any doubt or restriction, 
this great principle of our salvation ? 

Perhaps you may say, We can not understand how 
God can have become man to save men ; consequently, 

* John, i, 14. t Rom., v., 10. t John, v., 34. 



20 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

we can not believe it. You can not believe what you 
do not understand : this we grant you, my brethren ; 
but that you can not understand this truth, we deny. On 
the contrary, we assert that no truth can be clearer to 
the comprehension. There is certainly one thing that 
you can not understand ; that is, the manner in which 
God was united to man in Jesus ; neither can you con- 
ceive the manner in which your soul is united to your 
body; yet this is a matter which more immediately con- 
cerns you. But the word of God does not require your 
belief in this point. It does not summon you to believe 
how the thing was done, but only that it was done ; and 
this the mind of even a child can understand. " The 
secret things belong unto the Lord our God ; but those 
things which are revealed belong unto us and to our 
children."* The manner in which God was united to 
Christ is a secret thing ; it does not belong unto us. But 
that God was really in Christ, is a revealed thing, and 
the most glorious of all revealed things ; this, therefore, 
belongs to us and to our children, and nothing can ex- 
cuse you from believing it. 

" It is true," you will perhaps reply ; " that God should 
have become man is, indeed, a clear and evident fact to 
my mind ; but what a fact ! How can it be consistent 
with the ideas which I form, and which I ought to form, 
of the greatness and majesty of God ?" And do you 
think, then, my dear brother, that the greatness of God 
is a greatness of ostentation, like that of the powerful 
of the earth ? And do you think that His majesty con- 
sists in dwelling constantly in inaccessible palaces of 
glory, infinitely above the misery of creation ? No ! 
the greatness of God is a greatness of mercy. And in 
the fact that God became man, this grandeur is revealed 
to me with such splendor as I can never describe. It 

* Deut., xxix., 29. 



EMMANUEL. 21 

is in the ignominy that God endured that I discern all 
His glory. If all beings had spent all ages in en- 
deavoring to imagine some action by which God could 
manifest His love, and, consequently, His greatness to 
the whole universe, I do not believe they could have 
discovered any thing to equal this, that He became man 
to save us. 

But, at least, when I consider the smallness of this 
earth, the little space which it fills, the small number of 
the creatures of God who dwell upon it, in comparison 
with all those who probably fill the universe, how can I 
conceive that God, the great God, should have become 
man for so small a thing ? So small a thing ! Perhaps 
the salvation of the human race is not of as slight im- 
portance in the sight of God as it is in yours, my dear 
brother ! If a single soul is of more value than the 
whole world, what is the value of all the souls that shall 
have been saved here below ? So small a thing ! And 
is any thing small before God ? Is any thing great be- 
fore Him? Are not all things equally small and great 
in the eyes of that Being who is infinite ? You think it 
wonderful that God should have become man for our 
sakes, and you ask what He must have become for so 
many other worlds of which you are thinking ? But 
since you choose to trouble your mind about such 
things, do you suppose He is not for those other worlds 
all that it is necessary that He should be for them? 
Herein consists the greatness and universality of God's 
providence, that He is unto every one all that He needs 
to be. He supplies the wants of all beings according 
to their nature: those of the plants according to theirs; 
those of creatures endowed with life, but deprived of 
reason, according to theirs ; for us it was necessary that 
He should become man, and He became man. 

" But this is an idea which could never have entered 



22 DISC0URSE3 AXD ESSAYS. 

into our minds ; God really on earth ! God really man! 
This is far beyond our understanding, and opens a new 
field to our thoughts." But do you not perceive that it 
is positively necessary that an entirely new field should 
be opened to you? Do you suppose that you can pos- 
sess immortal souls, yet always remain attached to the 
little things which engage your thoughts through life? 
Do you not feel that some capital and fruitful truth must 
open to you the gates of a new system ? Oh ! immortal 
beings ! that which should astonish is, not that God has 
appeared in the flesh to raise you up unto Himself, but 
that you should not feel the need of it ! It is that you 
should be satisfied with the things which now satisfy 
you ; it is that you should not rise toward Him who 
stooped toward you. This, assuredly, is strange ; and 
this ought to be an almost inconceivable idea. 

Butif it be true that God came in the flesh, should not 
all things be changed, in our hearts, as well as in our 
lives ? Is there any thing on earth that ought to remain 
the same ? It is true, dear brethren ; all things ought to 
change ; we feel this, and this is the very cause of our 
unbelief. We are unwilling that God should come so 
near to us, because this proximity would require a com- 
plete regeneration. Jesus Himself declared it in the 
days when He dwelt in the flesh. He knew our hearts 
as He knew those of the Israelites who surrounded Him, 
when He said, " Men loved darkness rather than light, 
because their deeds were evil."* But even though such 
a change be the consequence of God's coming on earth, 
even though all things must be made new, this truth is 
nevertheless immovable, and God was nevertheless 
manifested in the flesh. Far more : this moral revolu- 
tion which must be the consequence of it, is precisely 
the most striking proof we can adduce in support of it, 
* John, iii. ? 19. 



EMMANUEL. 23 

A fable has no such effect. By means of the realities 
produced by faith in this event, you will recognize the 
reality of the event itself; falsehood has not been suf- 
fered to exert such power ; and that which builds up 
the kingdom of God on earth can not be an imposture 
proceeding from the gates of hell itself. 

Thus, beloved brethren, notwithstanding all the sub- 
tleties of our hearts, God is with us. This is the " great 
mystery of godliness"* of which St. -Paul speaks ; this 
is the rock on which the Church of the Redeemer is 
built.f God is with us; no human sophistry can dis- 
turb this glorious principle of our faith. No school of 
philosophers, no society of the learned, no assembly of 
carnal men, could hinder God from coming into the 
world. The earth is His property, and He came to visit 
that property. In vain were the husbandmen unwilling 
to receive the beloved Son ; in vain would they cast 
Him out of the vineyard ; He has been there, He is 
there still, and He will be there yet. No art of human 
pride can efface the traces of God on earth. He has 
been with us, " and we testify concerning Him," and we 
declare it unto all, that all may hear, understand, and 
believe it 



WE WITH GOD. 

But wherefore has He been with us, my brethren ? 
Wherefore did He leave the eternal mansions of glory ? 
It can not have been for a small matter that He did it. 

God has been with you that you might be with Him. 
Surely He came not hither merely to display His glory 
before our eyes. If you are not with God, you arrest 
with a wanton and audacious hand the work which He 
came to accomplish. 

* 1 Tim., iii., 16. t Matt,, xvi., 16, 18. 



24 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

God has been with you. God has been on earth to 
save you ; you should then attend to this, my dear broth- 
er; you should be deaf to 'all the voices which have 
hitherto bewildered you, and, above all, seek to hear 
what that God who came in the flesh has to say unto 
you. You should turn away from all that the world 
lays before you, and direct your first researches to that 
which God brings you. You should feel the emptiness 
of all the works and enterprises that men accomplish, 
and perceive that God has come to accomplish the capi- 
tal work, the supreme enterprise. In a word, God has 
been with you ; you should then be on His side, and 
choose your lot for eternity. A weight which arrests 
all vacillation has been thrown into the balance ; all 
hesitation was at an end from the moment that God ap- 
peared in the flesh. And how could it be otherwise ? 
The man who comes forward to perform any important 
work is soon surrounded by men attentive to his actions, 
who, if they can reap any advantage from it, will aid 
him in his undertaking. And shall God have come to 
begin a work in which none will join Him ? Shall He 
in vain stretch forth His hands all the day long to a re- 
bellious people? In what, then, are you engaged? 
What retains you ? God is here ; the world has nothing 
to oppose to Him. His work is stronger than all others. 
There is not a seduction in the world, there is not a 
sophism in your heart which must not fall in its nothing- 
ness before this simple truth : "God has been manifest- 
ed in the flesh." With it we force you back into your 
last retreats; we summon you authoritatively to advance 
henceforth toward the path of truth and life. It will be 
the first step of your union with God. 

But when once you have turned to God, what will 
you have still to do ? God has been on earth ; you 
should profit by it in being reconciled with Him. ' It was 



EMMANUEL. 25 

that you might find access unto Him that God became 
man, and was with us. In heaven, even the angels, not- 
withstanding their purity, dare not turn their looks to- 
ward Him. " The seraphim," the Scriptures say, " cover 
their faces with their wings, and cry, Holy, holy, holy 
is the Lord God of hosts."* But here below, the great- 
est sinner, when he has acknowledged his sin with tears, 
can come unto Him boldly, as to a friend who has al- 
ready pardoned him. He has made Himself like one 
of us. He is willing to treat us as equals. Hasten, 
then, oh ! sinful men, to take advantage of this opportu- 
nity ! If you delay, tremble lest you should find noth- 
ing but inexorable holiness in Him who now offers you 
mercy beyond all comprehension. Behold ! there is 
nothing in Him that should terrify your hearts and justify 
your estrangement. He was born in a stable ; He was 
laid in a manger ; He did not " strive nor cry ;" He 
does not break the bruised reed ; He is meek and low- 
ly of heart ; sinners washed His feet with their tears, 
and He forgave them ; His whole life was a continual in- 
vitation to those who were weary and heavy laden. 
There are no longer any obstacles to keep you far from 
Him ; there are none save in yourselves, and it is yours 
to remove them. Oh ! make your peace with Him 
while He is near unto you. 

But to unite you with God, it is not enough to be 
merely reconciled with Him ; you must also give your- 
selves to Him. It is not to make peace with your rival, 
but to surrender yourselves to your master. God has 
come on earth, like the woman seeking the piece of sil- 
ver she had lost;f her money must be recovered, that 
she may put it back in her treasury ; to withhold it 
longer from her would be a sacrilegious theft. God 
has been with you ; give yourselves back to Him to 

* Isaiah, vi., 2, 3. t Luke, xvi., 8. 

c 



26 DISCOURSES AND ESSAfS. 

whom you belong, and who came Himself to seek you, 
All your weapons should be laid at the feet of Him who 
has conquered you. Your revolt should have an end. 
You should indeed be bound by a chain, but a chain 
which comes from heaven. Had He sent one of His 
angels to seek you, even then your resistance would 
have been a crime ; but by what name shall we call it, 
since it was He Himself who came ? Which of your 
affections can you hold back from Him who gave Him- 
self to obtain them ? How shall you dare to appear 
before His bar in heaven, if you retain on earth that 
which cost Him so much 1 Wander, then, no longer 
blindly, constantly changing masters in the world. You 
have found what you sought. To Him you should 
belong. 

God with you : you with God. You with God through- 
out life. The piece of money will never leave the treas- 
ury in which it has been replaced. The union between 
God and yourself should be ever closer, It should ex- 
ist not only in your faith, but also in your life. By your 
walk it should be seen with whom you are walking. 
You should follow His look. "God should dwell in 
you: you should dwell in Him."* 

God has been with you : oh ! perfect law of justice 
and holiness ! This can supply the place of every oth- 
er precept for you ; you need no other Lawgiver. God 
has been with you. Think of His abasement, and you 
will be ashamed of your pride. Think of His poverty, 
and the love of riches will be extinguished in your soul. 
Think of His gentleness, and anger will no more disturb 
your mind. Think of His obedience, and the desire of 
independence or dominion will be banished from your 
Jieart. Think of His charity, and you will love all 
your brethren. Every mental quality that appeared 

* 1 John, iv., 16. 



EMMANUEL. 27 

in Him should become so entirely your own, that He 
would form, as it were, another being within you. Let 
Emmanuel be your companion; let your life bear His 
seal, and let every thing in it testify that God is with 
you. 

But it is especially in the hour of danger that you 
may glory in the fact that God is with you ; then, espe- 
cially, you ought to be with God. It is when temptation 
approaches, when the world would draw us away, 
when an evil destiny threatens us, that this word, "God 
with us," has a peculiar meaning. So long as we re- 
main on earth we are on a field of battle, and we ad- 
vance through the close ranks of our enemies ; the ad- 
versaries are powerful, their attacks are frequent, and 
we ourselves are nothing. But God is with us; He 
has chosen our side ; He stands with us ; what power 
shall we fear? On the cross He overcame sin, Satan, 
and death ; which of them can conquer us now ? He 
constantly surrounds with His power all who put their 
trust in Him. We can at all times go and seek from 
Him the victory that overcometh the world.* He who 
came once in all our woes will not refuse to visit us in 
the portion of woes allotted to each of us. God has 
been on earth ; the thing will end well. " The Lord is 
the strength of my life ; of whom shall I be afraid ? 
Though a host should encamp against me, my heart 
shall not fear."f 

And if we say, God is with us on earth, can we not 
say with assurance, we shall be with God in heaven? 
We have already seen what " God manifested in the 
flesh" requires of you in the present time ; should we 
not now examine what He promises you for the life to 
come ? Can God have had any other object in appear- 
ing in our inheritance than to give us the possession of 

* 1 John, v., 4. t Psalm xxvii., 1, 3. 



28 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

His own ? Was not His object, in being with us during 
a human life, to cause us to be with Him on high through- 
out an eternity ? We with God forever I This is the 
last and most glorious consequence of the great mys- 
tery of godliness. Yes, my brethren, let this mystery 
teach you the greatness of your destiny. Give up these 
vulgar ideas ; throw off these earthly prejudices which 
render you worthless. Refuse not to receive and open 
these true patents of nobility which the Divine Being 
returned to you when He assumed your nature. This 
human nature of yours is the throne which God was 
pleased to choose. How great, then, are the purposes 
for which it may be reserved ! God has been made 
flesh ; since such a transformation has occurred, how 
great a transformation you can now hope for ! And 
since God has become man, what, then, can man be- 
come ! Neither angels, nor principalities, nor powers, 
have the same titles of glory, the same pledges of great- 
ness ; for God did not assume their natures. God has 
been here below as our neighbor ; let us not wonder, 
then, that He declares that w T e shall share ail things 
with Him ; that His inheritance shall be ours ;* that 
His throne shall be ours ;f that if we suffer with Him, 
we shall also be glorified together with Him. J Pre- 
serve in your hearts this glorious truth, O ye who be- 
lieve in God manifest in the flesh. You can never be 
with God here below in as literal a sense as God has 
been with you ; but if God with you has been a principle 
in this world, you with God will be a principle of heav- 
en. There alone will be fulfilled the union of which 
this day speaks. Here below we follow the road ; 
there we shall reach the goal. Here below we only 
make efforts ; there the work will be accomplished. 
" Then cometh the end," says the apostle. " God will 

* Rom., viii., 17. t Rev., iii., 21. % Rom., viii., 17. 



EMMANUEL. 29 

be all in all.''*' It will be the last measure of our union 
with God. 

Lord ! how is it with Thy work, that work for which 
Thou didst become a man here below ? Oh ! why are 
there still so many left behind ? So many who believe 
not that Thou hast dwelt with us ! Lord ! shall Thy 
work remain imperfect? And when Thy hand has 
raised the scaffold, shall the edifice remain unbuilt ? O 
Thou who didst come in the flesh, fulfil the purpose for 
which Thou didst come ! Let not our wicked unbelief 
neutralize the effect of Thy manifestation ! Call men 
unto Thyself ! Destroy the enmity which is in our 
hearts, that all may be one /f Thou dost not lay the 
corner-stone of the building without erecting the build- 
ing. We know and confess that the work which Thou 
didst begin in Bethlehem is accomplishing in the world. 
That work goes on. The laying of the foundation of 
the heavenly Jerusalem is constantly advancing here 
below. All things are hastening on. " Thou art wor- 
thy to receive honor, and glory, and blessing."J 

But, my brethren, are we those "lively stones" of 
which Peter speaks, " who are built up a spiritual house 
of God ?"§ You have seen, my brethren, that God has 
been with us, to accomplish on His part the work of 
our union ; we should be with God, to accomplish it on 
ours. You know all ; we have kept back nothing from 
you ; you have been enabled to contemplate that work 
as it should be. But we ask you once more, Has that 
work been executed ? Examine, my dear hearer, the 
state of your soul in this respect. Can you avoid look- 
ing upon this work as worthy of all your consideration ? 
Can it be that, having heard the truth to-day, you will 
not think of being united with God ? What, then, will 

* 1 Cor., xv., 24, 28. t John, xvii., 21. 

% Rev., v., 12. § 1 Peter, ii. s 5. 

C2 



30 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

occupy your attention 1 To what undertaking will you 
give up your time ? If the things of which we have 
spoken to you to-day do not concern your eternal peace, 
what can there be beside that does concern it ? Will 
you not remember that indifference has its bounds, and 
that the day is coming when we can no longer postpone 
the consideration of this subject ? May that moment 
have arrived for you, my dear hearer ! May this day 
be blessed to you, so that it may become the glorious 
epoch of your union with God ; and that, in the same 
hour in which I have said, God with us, I may be able 
to say, You with God ! Amen. 



THE CROSS OF JESUS CHRIST. 31 



II. THE CROSS OF JESUS CHRIST. 

A DISCOURSE. 

** But God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus 
Christ."— Gal., vi., 14. 

My Brethren, — God did not choose to deprive man 
of all occasions of glorying. To glory is one of the 
most characteristic propensities of our nature. It is 
seen in every class of society, and in every portion of 
the human race. From the highest dignitary to the 
lowest beggar, from the enlightened and refined citizen 
to the savage, in whose mind scarcely a spark of reason 
appears, all discover something in which they think 
they can glory. And in what do they glory ? In fool- 
ish toys, of which they should rather be ashamed than 
proud. Oh ! what a sad spectacle our vanity presents ; 
and how evidently it shows that the human race has 
lost that in which it ought to glory ; that " it has come 
short of the glory of God ;"* and that, in this abject pov- 
erty, it grasps eagerly at the first bauble it sees, as a 
substitute for the reality which it does not possess. 
Thus the inhabitant of a city, reduced to the most 
dreadful famine, seizes with avidity the loathsome food, 
at the sight of which, in common times, he would sick- 
en. God designed to give man something in which he 
could reasonably glory: He gave him "the Cross of 
Jesus Christ." "God forbid," says St Paul in the 
words of our text, " that I should glory, save in the Cross 
of Jesus Christ." And herein he utters a sentence of 
condemnation against all the delusive objects which we 
usually worship. He commands all men to cease their 

* Rohl, in' 23 



32 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

vain researches ; and he commends the Cross of Jesus 
Christ as the only thing worthy of being gloried in eter- 
nally by every rational being. And when the apostle 
speaks of the Cross, do not suppose that he means that 
visible sign, the representation of which is frequently 
seen in many countries of Christendom, and which su- 
perstition has so greatly abused. He refers to the 
death of the Son of God, which in due time occurred, 
for the remission of our sins. But be uses this expres- 
sion, the Cross, to remind us, by the remembrance of 
that punishment which was esteemed infamous among 
all nations, that this death in which he requires us to 
glory is full of humiliation, reproach, and shame, and is 
even accursed of God.* Such, my brethren, is the 
glory of which God permits, nay, commands you to 
boast. On this day was laid the only foundation of all 
greatness which humanity can claim. Never could 
man have had reason to glory, had not that scene oc- 
curred on Golgotha eighteen centuries ago ; had not 
that Jesus, who was dragged from Pilate to Herod, and 
from Herod back to Pilate, been crucified then ; had 
He not been nailed to the tree, " a reproach of men, 
and despised of the people ; M f and had not the most 
fearful condemnation rested on the only innocent being 
that ever dwelt on earth. On that day the great battle 
was fought, the great victory achieved, which brought 
us honor and immortality. On that day our perpetual 
grant of nobility was inscribed in the Book of Life. 
" God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of 
our Lord Jesus Christ." 

i This Meditation will be devoted to the examination 
of the new right of glorying which has been granted 
to man. On this subject there are two opinions : 
One is the apostle's opinion, which we shall sustain* 
* Gal., iiu, 13, t Ps.xxii»& 



THE CROSS OF JESUS CHRIST. 33 

The other is the opinion of the world, which we shall 
refute. 

In other words, we shall first display the greatness 
of the Cross of Christ, and shall then examine your sen- 
timents with regard to it. And when we shall have 
defended the truth and opposed error, we shall have 
accomplished our design. 

And do Thou, O Lord ! fulfill the work which Thou 
alone canst perform ; for both the beginning and the end, 
and all things, are Thine. Show us that the Cross of 
Jesus Christ is " the power of God and the wisdom of 
God."* Amen. 



THE APOSTLE'S OPINION. 

We have observed, my brethren, that the apostle of 
the Gentiles holds up the Cross of Christ as the only 
thing in which he has a right to glory. And the first 
reason which led him to do so was, because he saw the 
character and glory of God fully displayed in it. It is 
true that St. Paul had been taught concerning God in 
his early years. But the zeal which led him so violent- 
ly to persecute the disciples of the Nazarene before his 
conversion is sufficient evidence of the nature of his 
knowledge of God. But afterward, the Cross of Jesus 
Christ was revealed to him ; it spoke of a God concern- 
ing whom he had not been taught in the school of Ga- 
maliel ; and he gloried in the gift of that wonderful 
knowledge. Yes, my brethren, the Cross is the only 
teacher that reveals the living God. It matters not 
from what source we have drawn our knowledge ; 
unless the Cross of Jesus Christ has instructed us, we 
have no real acquaintance with God. Without that 
Cross, even nature and conscience speak in an unknown 

* 1 Cor., i., 24. 



34 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

tongue ; and that which is most important for us to 
know is hidden from us. Where will you learn to know 
God's holiness, the absolute detestation with which He 
looks upon sin, and of which He gives you so serious a 
warning ? Conscience will tell you something about it. 
But if you would form a correct idea of it, go to the 
Cross of Jesus Christ. See Him who dwells in the full- 
ness of the Godhead, nailed to that tree on account of 
sin, and because iniquity exists on earth. Will you 
ever have vague ideas of God's holiness again ? And 
will you ever think that God has not given sufficiently 
striking tokens of it to the world ? Where will you 
learn to know the love of God, that infinite mercy which 
must be the foundation of all your happiness? Nature 
will tell you something about it. But if you wish to hear 
it speak with a power compared with which nature can 
only stammer, go to the Cross of Jesus Christ. See the 
beloved Son of the Father humbling Himself unto death, 
and nailed to the Cross, to the end that the world might 
have life. Is not that an act of love ? " Scarcely for a 
righteous man will one die : yet perad venture for a 
good man some would even dare to die. But God com- 
mendeth His love toward us, in that w r hile we were yet 
sinners, Christ died for us."* Where will you learn to 
know the glory of God? Where, O my Lord and 
my God, can I see Thee in all Thy glory ? Shall my 
thoughts be fixed on Thee as surrounded by those 
worlds created by Thee? Shall I think of Thee as 
dwelling in light inaccessible, worshiped by all Thine 
angels, who prostrate themselves before Thee afar off? 
There is no place in the universe that is suited to Thy 
greatness. All is so small compared with Thee, so 
much at variance with Thine infinity ! But no : there 
is a place appropriate for the manifestation of all Thy 

* Rom., v., 7, 8. 



THE CROSS OF JESUS CHRIST. 35 

glory ; that place is the accursed tree to which Thou 
wast nailed. There I learn to know Thee in all Thy 
majesty, far better than when surrounded by those mill- 
ions who assemble around Thy throne.*" All these con- 
ceptions of angels, of archangels, and of cherubim, who 
bow their heads before Thee, are but mere types bor- 
rowed from man's ideas of greatness. But when bound 
to the Cross for our sins, Thy glory is infinite. I can 
discover no trace of human grandeur there. There 
Thou appearest in Thy native splendor, in divine mag- 
nificence. Ah ! no longer do I look with envy upon angels 
and archangels as they pay their homage before Thee 
on Thy heavenly throne ! It is the part of man to wor- 
ship Thee on a more wonderful throne — to worship 
Thee on Thy Cross. Angels forsook the skies when 
Thou, O Lord ! wast hanging there ; for earth was 
the scene of a spectacle which heaven had never wit- 
nessed. At the foot of the Cross I would stand to know 
Thee, and to glory in it. "God forbid that I should 
glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ !" 

But if St. Paul gloried in the Cross of Christ because 
it revealed to him all the glory of God, he gloried in it 
quite as much because it taught him his own wretched- 
ness. In what a state must he have been to have made 
it necessary that such an event should happen to effect 
his deliverance ! It is true that there are voices enough, 
both internal and external, to teach us our nothingness; 
but how skillful are we in eluding their influence, and in 
escaping from their appeals ! With what false right- 
eousness does man shield himself, till he has seen the 
Cross of Jesus Christ ; and how lofty the position he 
assumes, till the Cross has humbled him ! The Cross of 
Jesus Christ is the great bill of accusation which God 
holds up in the sight of the whole world. No one can 

* Daniel, vii., 1Q. 



36 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

behold it without being immediately convicted. It is 
folly for a man to suppose that he can have been inno- 
cent, when the Son of God was made a sacrifice for his 
transgression. My brethren, the Cross of Christ will 
not speak ambiguously of your souls' disease. It will 
reveal the extent of your condemnation. It will show 
you the enormity of your sin. It will extinguish every 
spark of pride within you. Oh ! thou who thinkest thy- 
self of great value in the sight of God ! come to the 
Cross of Christ and renounce that thought ; come, and 
learn thy worth : it was necessary that the Son of God 
should shed His blood to ransom thee from death ! Oh ! 
thou who gloriest in the remembrance of thy virtues! 
come hither a moment, and examine them in the light 
of the Cross ; they will fade away ; they will be eclips- 
ed ; thou shalt see them sullied by egotism and pride, 
whereby they are rendered abominable in the eyes of 
God. Let the proudest of men draw near ; let him 
stand at the foot of that Cross erected for his salvation, 
and what will become of his pride? The Cross de- 
stroys that deceiving glass which magnifies us in our own 
eyes. It annihilates us. And on this account Paul glo- 
ries in it ; for he knows that in his present state the first 
object he can attain is, to feel his own wretchedness. 
Nor ought we, my brethren, to have any other cause 
for glorying than that of Paul. We can not be great in 
the eyes of God until we feel our worthlessness in His 
estimation. Oh ! blessed be that Cross, which has brought 
us to our proper level, and which has shown us, in the 
consciousness of our insignificance, the source of all our 
glory ! 

But if St. Paul glories in the Cross of Jesus Christ 
because it reduced his false greatness, he glories in it 
especially because it raises him to the level of true great- 
ness. The source of his glory is, that such a price 



THE CROSS OF JESUS CHRIST. 37 

should have been paid for the salvation of his soul ; that 
the Son of God Himself should have died for the sin 
which he committed ; that the blood shed on the Cross 
should have blotted out all his transgressions, and have 
acquired immortality for him. And in what, my dear 
hearer, does your glory consist, if not in the remission 
of your sins ? What reason have you to lift up your 
head, if not because One died for you,* and because it 
was that Being who made all things, and who sustains 
all things by the word of His power ?f What ! will 
you glory so earnestly in the smallest sacrifice that a 
mortal being makes for you, and in the least inconve- 
nience that he bears ; and will you not glory in the fact, 
that the Lord of all things, manifested in the flesh, was 
willing to shed His blood on the Cross for your sake ? 
It was not for His own transgressions that He was 
pierced, for even His judge declared, "I find no fault 
in Him."J It was not on account of the power of His 
adversaries ; " could He not then have prayed to His 
Father ; and He would presently have given Him more 
than twelve legions of angels ?"§ Why, then, did He 
die on the Cross? It must have been for your sake, 
my dear brother ; this is the only supposition we can en- 
tertain. Yes, the only cause for which the Son of God 
was nailed to the tree, was the love which He bore to 
your soul, and the resolution He had made to save it. 
When He fulfilled His design, when He recoiled not 
before suffering, when He shrank not in the fearful hour, 
it was to save your soul. When He gave all His blood 
for you, when He was forsaken of His God,|| when His 
soul endured anguish of which we can have no concep- 
tion, it was to save your soul. When He fought a great 
battle on the Cross, when He overcame sin, the world, 

* 2 Cor., v., 15. f John, i., 3. Col., i., 16, 17. Heb., ii., 3, 10. 

% John, xix., 4. § Matth., xxvi., 53. || Matth., xxvii., 46. 

D 



38 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

death, and hell, this, too, was to save your soul. He 
died — all is finished. He paid with His own blood the 
debt which you would have owed forever. You are 
reconciled. Your iniquity is blotted out. He is now 
" the author of eternal salvation"* for all who obey Him. 
Oh ! what a wonderful event is the death of the only Son 
of the Father ! An event which will be unequaled in 
the whole history of the universe ! An event, in view 
of the importance of which the angels will bow their 
heads, unable to measure its grandeur ! And will you, 
my dear brother, for whose sake this event took place, 
be the only one whom it shall not affect ? Will you 
not glory in it ? What event of celestial origin could 
happen on earth, the occurrence of which could be more 
astonishing? At what price can you be ransomed, if 
the very life of the being to whom you are indebted is 
not of sufficient value ? At what price do you estimate 
yourself, if the blood of the King of the earth is too in- 
considerable ? And what gift would you then receive, 
if you so lightly esteem an eternity of glory ? Ah ! 
when you stand before the bar of God, and the eye of 
the Judge penetrates into the sinfulness of your soul, 
what will become of your hope ? What will become of 
your glory ? What will strengthen your heart, if you 
can not say in the presence of your Judge, and of the 
multitude who stand before Him,f " Christ died for my 
sins?"J Yes, my brethren, the unbeliever alone can 
gaze upon that Cross without discerning in it the source 
of his glory ; for there is, indeed, nothing there for him 
to glory in. But the believer discovers infinite glory 
in it. Lord ! it is so ; and the more humble Thy Cross 
appears, the more we will glory in it ; for what great- 
ness does such an abasement announce to us ! what 
glory is promised us in such a humiliation ! 

* Heb., v., 9. f Rev., xx., 11. %\ Cor., xv,, 3. 



THE CROSS OF JESUS CHRIST. 39 

But notice the motive which the apostle himself as- 
signs. "God forbid," he says, "that I should glory, 
save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ ; by whom 
the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." 
This, my brethren, is indeed a glorious advantage of the 
Cross of Jesus Christ. It is the great misfortune of man 
that he can not separate himself from this present world 
and become a citizen of the world to come. The Cross 
performs this miracle ; it crucifies him to the world, and 
crucifies the world to him. How forcible is this ex- 
pression ! It will crucify you to the world, my breth- 
ren ; that is, it will crucify sin within you, whereby you 
are made to live for the world. Since you acknowledge 
that it was on account of sin that Christ died, will you 
not hate sin ? Will you not resist those impulses which 
affect your heart ? Yes, my brethren ; the death of the 
Redeemer is the only thing that can make you hate 
your own evil nature. It is the true remedy for your 
disease. But the Cross of Christ will also crucify the 
world to you ; that is, it will destroy in you all the at- 
tractions of the vanities of this world. You can not 
love both the Cross and the world. Of what value will 
all the pomp of this age be to the man for whom the 
Cross shall have bought the riches of the world to 
come ? And how sincerely will he hate the world also, 
since it was sin that caused his Savior's death, and 
since the lusts and vices of the world were the instru- 
ments of sin ! And, by crucifying man to this world, 
the Cross will make him a citizen of the world to come. 
By destroying within him the new man, which is of earth, 
it will form within him the old man which is of heaven. 
Where Christ is, there, likewise, will be his treasure 
and his heart. He will be risen with Christ.* It is 
thus that the Cross effects the great change which man 

* Col, iii., 1. 



40 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

needs, and makes the being whom it found in the dust 
an inhabitant of heaven. It is thus that it accomplishes 
that to which both human law and human wisdom 
have ever been found inadequate. Oh ! God forbid that 
I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus 
Christ ! 

But the last motive which induced St. Paul to ex- 
claim, as he was advancing into Asia, Greece, or Italy, 
or crossing the sea, that he desired no other glory, was, 
his conception of the pow T er of that Cross, and of the 
triumphs which await it. The great apostle knew that it 
was all sufficient to give immortality to those who have 
fallen into the deepest misery. He knew that it had 
redeemed a great people, both in the cities of Galatia, 
to which he wrote, and in Greece, Rome, and Jerusalem. 
He knew its future destiny, that kings and nations would 
come and prostrate themselves before it, that "the peo- 
ple would bring their sons in their arms,"* and that it 
had received the ends of the earth for an inheritance. 
And as for ourselves, my brethren, we can see in part 
the things which the apostle predicted. That despised 
Cross of Calvary has been raised up, and already it 
reigns over one half of the world. The prophecy of 
Him who hung upon it is constantly fulfilling : " I, if I 
be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me."+ 
How many thousands of souls, in all ages, have gazed 
upon it as the Israelites of old gazed upon the brazen 
serpent in the wilderness,^ and were saved ! How 
great a multitude, rescued by it from the kingdom of 
darkness, is now praising before the throne the salva- 
tion purchased by the Lamb !§ Old things have passed 
aw r ay ; all things have become new. The breath of a 
new life has been perceptible in the universe for the 
last eighteen centuries. The Cross of Jesus Christ has 

* Is., xlix,, 22. t John, xii., 32. } Num., xxi., 5-9. $ Rev., vii., 9, 10. 



THE CROSS OF JESUS CHRIST. 41 

already overcome many adversaries. Slavery, barbar- 
ity, effeminacy, have fled before it ; so that, while saving 
individuals, it has become the true power of nations. 
As it advances, it effects the deliverance of the world. 
It puts to flight the powers of darkness, and we are left 
free. Struggling at once against superstition, which 
would put miserable human inventions in its place or 
by its side ; and infidelity, which would fain destroy it, 
and persuade men that heaven is not open for the sal- 
vation of the earth ; it is continually overthrowing its 
hideous enemies, on the right hand and on the left. 
Not satisfied with spreading its blessings over the scenes 
of its former conquests, it flies through the midst of the 
heavens to make new conquests. It is that standard 
which the Lord God sets up to the people.* Its victo- 
ries increase. It gathers from all quarters those whom 
sin had dispersed ; and, trusting in its boundless strength, 
we can already foresee the time when it shall be said, 
"Now doth the whole earth belong to our God and His 
Anointed !" Oh ! God forbid that I should glory, save 
in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ ! Let the world 
trample upon Thee ; yet by Thee is the world saved ! 
One drop of Thy blood is more precious to us than all 
the wealth of the universe. 



THE OPINION OF THE WORLD. 

Is this your language, my brethren? If such was 
St. Paul's opinion, what is yours? There is, perhaps, 
no truth which encounters so much opposition from the 
world as this. How many are there who say, on the 
contrary, I will glory in any thing rather than the Cross 
of our Lord Jesus Christ ! Are you not among this 

* Is., xlix., 22. 

D2 



42 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

class, my brethren ? Let your consciences testify 
whether, even on this occasion, on this day of triumph 
of the Cross, and since you entered this sacred edifice, 
and have been listening to my words, there have not 
been some sentiments in your minds and hearts which 
are directly opposed to those of St. Paul. 

And why is it thus ? Perhaps you ask, Is it neces- 
sary to think so much of the Cross? There are so 
many other subjects in religion of more importance than 
this. Of more importance than the Cross ! We might 
here remind you of what we have just said, but we pre- 
fer to refute you by your own words. You wish to 
set aside the Cross, as a thing of little importance ; and 
yet you exclaim, "We cannot conceive of such a thing 
as that Cross, that expiatory death of God's only Son ; 
it is too much for our reason." How can such decis- 
ions be made to agree ? How can the Cross be at once 
so contemptible and so astonishing ? If it so greatly 
surpasses your comprehension, why do you esteem it so 
lightly? You must explain this. The Cross of the 
Son of God can not exist if it be unworthy of your at- 
tention. It is either true or false. If it be true, it is 
the noblest affair on earth; and you must come and 
acknowledge it, and prostrate yourselves before it in 
spirit. If it be false, you ought to pronounce it an ab- 
solute imposture, as well as all the holy volumes which 
proclaim it, and Christianity itself, which is a mere 
summary of it. You should, like those first apostates 
of the Church, trample upon it, and swear by the gods 
of this world. The Cross ought to be, in your opinion, 
either the wisdom of God, or a falsehood of hell. It 
must be the cause either of your salvation or of your 
destruction. There is no medium between these paths. 
You can not be indifferent to this subject. 

" But," you will say, " it is this that perplexes us. If 



THE CROSS OF JESUS CHRIST. 43 

the Cross be true, then it is certain that the foundation 
of all our pretensions must give way, and that we must 
glory in it alone. But is it true? Is it true that the 
Son of God shed His blood on the Cross to purchase 
eternal life for us ?" Yes, my brethren, it is true ; and 
the witness who will convince you of this is GooHim- 
self, the only true God, who has declared through His 
messengers that" Christ reconciled both unto God in one 
oody by the Cross."* But, without seeking a witness in 
heaven, is not earth itself sufficient ? Think of the most 
striking events of antiquity ; not a vestige of them re- 
mains; and it is only through the ancient chronicles 
which have been handed down to us, that we are ac- 
quainted with their existence. But it is not so with the 
expiatory death of Christ ; this fact is living in the world. 
The present state of the world bears testimony concern- 
ing it. It is from the blood which flowed from that Cross 
that all those nations have sprung which have unfurled 
the sacred banner over the globe which they rule 
Among them every thing speaks of it. Yes, the Cross 
of Jesus Christ is above your reach ; you can not disturb 
it. This truth, on which eighteen centuries rest, can not 
be laid aside as readily as any vain imagination fabri- 
cated by the man who advances it. Attacked at all 
times by the combined strength of men, it has remained 
firm through every age. It has sustained itself against 
the united efforts of infidelity and superstition. And 
this fact of a sacrifice once offered up for the sins of 
all is forever extant in the world, proclaimed among 
the nations as the most important fact acknowledged 
by humanity. 

But is it possible that such a thing has happened ? 
luto what a state of astonishment does this doctrine 
throw us ! And how can we view it otherwise than 

* Eph., UV, 16, 



44 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

as a piece of folly? My brethren, let us not inquire 
into the possibility of an event of which we have ascer- 
tained the reality. To ask whether that which has 
been is possible, is a ridiculous quibble of sophistry; 
and the voice of sophistry must be silent when the Cross 
of the Son of God is concerned. You are astonished, 
you say ; and tell me, according to what principles are 
our minds to measure the depths of Divinity ? If God, 
when He gives life to a plant, performs a deed which 
confounds you, do you suppose that when He reconciles 
the world to Himself, it need not astonish you ? Man 
wonders at this, because he never conceived of any 
thing like it. But learn that God has sympathized with 
you in this feeling, and that He offers His Cross in the 
very same manner in which you receive it. He calls 
it foolishness.* But may not this be for the purpose 
of teaching us that if we presume to dispute with Him, 
we shall find that what we call wisdom is foolishness, 
and what we call foolishness is wisdom ? A little of 
the foolishness of the Cross is enough to confound all 
our philosophy. That Cross, which alone manifests 
all the attributes of God, and which alone satisfies all 
the wants of man, is the true code of wisdom of this uni- 
verse. All the systems of human pride will be success- 
ively confounded by it. It has already overcome sev- 
eral ; it will overcome many more. The man who 
does not know this deceives himself. The time is com- 
ing when all will wonder that they could have passed 
by it without attending to it ; and when Christ, " having 
spoiled the principalities and powers" of human wisdom 
which are reigning in this world, " and having made a 
show of them openly, will triumph over them in His 

Cross."t 

But if the Cross of Christ is not your wisdom and 

* 1 Cor., i, 21. t Col., ii., 15. 



THE CROSS OF JESUS CHRIST. 45 

your glory, what are you, then ? To what religion do 
you belong ? Are you Christians ? Christians without 
the Cross ? What novel form of Christianity is that, 
and in what school is it taught? You might learn 
from the very infidel that of which you seem to be ig- 
norant. Go to the son of Jacob ; go to the follower of 
the false prophet ; ask either of them what is this Christ- 
ianity which you profess. Though he does not believe 
in it, and is therefore not prejudiced in its favor, he 
will tell you that the Christians are a people who pro- 
fess to acknowledge Jesus of Nazareth, born in Bethle- 
hem, as the only Son of God, and who believe that the 
death which that Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate is 
the sacrifice which reconciles sinful and rebellious hu- 
manity to God. What ! do you not know your own 
religion as well as those who are strangers to it ? They 
insult the Cross of our Jesus, but they do not profess 
to believe in it ; but you profess to believe in it, and 
yet, like them, you are ashamed of it ! Not to glory in 
the Cross is to be an alien from the Christian Church. 
If we look at those who in every age have followed in 
the footsteps of St. Paul, and whose names are written 
in the Book of Life, we see that it is in this they glory. 
Those heroes of the Reformation whom we honor as 
our fathers in the faith, gloried in the Cross. God for- 
bid that, rejecting their example, you should glory, save 
in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ ! 

Ah ! my brethren, shall we tell you why you do not 
glory in the Cross alone ? Because you do not believe 
in it. Shall we tell you why you do not believe in it ? 
Because you do not know it. Shall we tell you why 
you do not know it ? Because you will not. Shall we 
tell you why you will not know it ? Because you do 
not feel the need of it. This is the point to which the 
whole case refers. We seize with eagerness the aid 



46 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

which we think to be necessary, but we despise it if we 
think it superfluous. The Cross of Jesus Christ is de- 
signed to purchase eternal happiness for you ; but you 
would fain purchase it for yourselves. The Cross of 
Jesus Christ is designed to procure sanctification ; but 
you would fain procure it yourselves. Then what have 
you to do with it 1 In my opinion, it is natural that 
you should reject it. The question is, Which of the 
two is in the right : the Cross of Jesus Christ, which 
makes salvation depend on itself, or you, who claim it 
as your own work? This is the question; a question 
which, if not answered before, must be decided in that 
day when all things will be judged and made manifest. 
But perhaps you say — as some may say with truth — 
" I do not deny the Cross of Christ." That is true ; you 
believe it, but partially. You do not deny the fact, but 
you evade it. You dare not believe, fully and openly, 
that the Son of God was nailed to the cross for your 
sake ; and therefore, so far as its influence on your 
heart is concerned, it is a fact of no importance. Ah ! 
reject this pusillanimous faith. Forsake this ruinous 
semi- Christianity. Any form of Christianity of which 
Christ crucified is not the center to which every thing 
tends, and from which every thing proceeds, is a false 
Christianity. Why should you not believe what St. 
Paul believed ? The Cross of Jesus Christ is just as 
near to you as it was to him. We offer you Christ 
crucified for you, as St. Peter offered Him to those who 
had nailed Him to the Cross.* You behold His blood, 
as they beheld it ; and it can wash away your stains, 
just as it washed theirs away. Ah ! what occasion can 
be more appropriate than this ? What time could you 
choose more suitable than this solemn hour, when the 
Son of God was pierced on Golgotha for your sakcs ? 

* Acts, iii., 15. 



THE CROSS OF JESUS CHHIST. 41 

Yes, Lord ! I will arise in this hour, and stand before 
Thy Cross ! Thou didst bring an offering here for me ; 
I bring Thee my offering. Thou didst make a sacrifice 
here ; I bring Thee my sacrifice. I come, Lord ! to 
forsake all things, and to declare that there is nothing 
in the world wherein I glory, save in that Cross to 
which I see Thee nailed. I throw away all my great- 
ness before Thee ; Thy Cross eclipses and destroys it. 
I sacrifice the pollution of which I used to boast. I 
trample upon my own righteousness, Lord ! I know 
that what I called righteousness was only iniquity. I 
trample upon my holiness ; I know that what I called 
holiness was only uncleanness. I trample upon my 
meritorious works ; I know that none of them are pure, 
and that the things which I thought worthy of life de- 
serve nothing but condemnation. There is nothing left, 
Lord ! Here am I as Thou wouldst have me : in the 
dust. Here am I before Thee, wretched, poor, blind, 
and naked. Give me Thy gold, " tried in the fire, that 
I may become rich !" Give me " the white raiment" of 
Thy righteousness, " that I may be clothed, and that the 
shame of my nakedness do not appear!"* Ah! Thy 
Cross gives me back all I had lost, and gives it back in 
a far greater measure. It was for me, Lord ! it was 
for me that Thou wast thus bound ! The blood which 
Thou didst shed affords me peace. I will wash away 
all my stains in it. It blots out all my sins in the eyes 
of my Judge. It brings me near, and reconciles me to 
Him. It utters for me " better things than the blood of 
Abel speaks."f Thy Cross becomes my wisdom ; Thy 
Cross becomes my righteousness ; Thy Cross becomes 
my sanctification ; Thy Cross becomes my redemption. 
Now am I rich, Lord ! I have acquired that title to 
glory which will admit me to heaven, and will give me 

* Rev., iii., 18, t Heb., xii., 24. 



48 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

an eternal throne. " God forbid that I should glory, 
save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ !" 

Ah ! let that host of infidels who have in all ages 
made the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ the object of 
their blasphemy, stand before us now ! We fear them 
not ; we will say to them : It is that crucified God whom 
we worship ; it is in that Cross of Jesus Christ that we 
glory. Fickle and vain-glorious world ! We know 
that the contempt of the wisdom and greatness of this 
generation will fall on us at the foot of the Cross of Jesus 
Christ ; but, covered with that contempt, we will brave 
your boasts, we will laugh at your magnificence, and 
we will despise your greatness. We " esteem the re- 
proach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of 
Egypt."* We glory in every scornful epithet; and, 
trampling upon every thing of which we might become 
proud, we again repeat with the apostle, " God forbid 
that we should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord 
Jesus Christ !" 

I will add but a word : Stand by that Cross. You 
have answered my call, my beloved brethren ; you 
have approached that Cross of our Lord ; thanks be to 
Him who brought you there ! But that is not enough ; 
you must never leave it. Henceforth let nothing draw 
you away from it. 

Stand by that Cross. Weep over your days of igno- 
rance there. Lament each moment that you lost when 
you knew not its power and its glory ; and, since you 
have lived so many years a stranger to it, and without 
God in the world, adopt, while you acknowledge your 
present happiness, the words of one of its venerable ser- 
vants : " I have known thee too late ! I have loved thee 
too late !"f 

Stand by that Cross . Since you have found that it 

* Heb., xi., 26. t Augustine. 



THE CROSS OF JESUS CHRIST. 49 

is the true source of greatness, sacrifice all false glory. 
Sacrifice joyfully that pride, produced, in one of you, by 
the superiority of mind or of knowledge for which you 
are eminent ; in another, by your elevated place in so- 
ciety, or your extensive reputation ; in a third, by the 
wealth which you possess, or by the mode of life for 
which you are distinguished ; in a fourth, by the admi- 
ration of which you are the object, by the splendor 
which surrounds you, or by the flattery you receive. 
But how shall I enumerate all the sources of that puer- 
ile pride which you should sacrifice to the Cross ! 

Stand by that Cross. Stand by it in your trials. Be 
comforted ; the Cross has saved you ; your redemption 
is accomplished ; eternal life awaits you ; not all the 
tempests of the world can disturb the peace acquired 
for you. Think but little of the burden you bear, in 
view of the punishment which the Holy One and the 
Just endured : and rejoice that you are led through the 
path of suffering by which Jesus went to glory. 

Stand by that Cross. And when sin is aroused in 
your members, when the world calls you, when the 
Evil One spreads his net, when your soul begins to 
stagger like a drunken man, then look to Jesus. Let 
the sight of what He suffered for your sins fill your soul 
with a sacred horror, and revive in your heart the dying 
flame of love. 

Stand by that Cross. And even if all things unite 
against it, if it be again surrounded by those who revile 
it and wag their heads,* still let it be your glory to 
confess it boldly before all men ; for " whosoever shall 
confess me before men," saith the Lord, "him will I 
confess also before my Father which is in heaven ; but 
whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also 
deny before my Father which is in heaven."f 

* Matt., xxvii., 39. t Matt., x., 32, 33. 

E 



50 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

The day is drawing nigh when the veil which con- 
ceals that Cross will be drawn back, and it will diffuse 
its light and glory on those who shall not have been 
ashamed of it. May God give you strength to be con- 
fessors of the Cross of Christ during life. May God 
give you strength to be confessors of the Cross of Christ 
in death. " I will not blot out his name out of the Book 
of Life,"* saith the Lord. Amen. 

* Rev., iii, 5. 



THE PUBLICATION OF THE GOSPEL. 51 



III. THE PUBLICATION OF THE GOSPEL, 

A DISCOURSE. 
*' The poor have the Gospel preached to them." — Matt., xi., 5. 

My Brethren, — In the reign of the Emperor Tibe- 
rius, and his immediate successors, a wonderful revolu- 
tion took place in Asia Minor and Greece. The inhabi- 
tants of those countries were living in the midst of dark- 
ness, strangers to God and indifferent to the salvation 
of their souls. Some were meditating on absurd theo- 
ries, shutting out the few beams of light which they 
had received from ancient philosophers; others were 
ruined by the indulgence of sensual appetites; many 
crossed the seas in eager pursuit of the objects of their 
speculations ; and all, actuated by curiosity and by 
vague forebodings for which they could give no account, 
were anxiously listening to the tidings of events which 
rumor brought them. The apostolic historian particu- 
larly informs us, that ** all the Athenians and strangers 
which were there spent their time in nothing else but ei- 
ther to tell or to hear some new thing."* But suddenly 
tidings of a most extraordinary nature spread throughout 
those regions. First, Asia Minor hears the story, and 
soon it is repeated in Greece ; the ships which go from 
Troas carry it to Neapolis ; from Neapolis it spreads to 
Philippi; from Philippi it reaches Thessalonica, Corinth, 
and Athens. The Gospel is preached. A star has aris- 
en in the East, and spreads its light around. A mes- 
sage has been brought from the great God, who made 
the heavens and the earth. A Hebrew, named Paul, has 
appeared, and has spoken at Iconium, at Derbe, and at 
Lystra, He proclaims to men the counsel of God's 

'* Acts, xvii,, 2L 



52 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS, 

mercy ; he announces that a heavenly kingdom is found- 
ed on earth ; he declares to all, in every place, that, to 
become citizens of this kingdom, they must be convert- 
ed and baptized in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 
Strange news I Must we believe it ? Or must we re- 
ject it ? They examine the matter ; they listen to Paul 
himself. Many find that he speaks the truth ; they feel 
that this message is addressed to them ; they forsake 
their superstitions, their customs, and every thing that 
practice had endeared to them ; they believe ; they re- 
ceive eternal life. " They turn to God from idols," says 
the apostle, who was himself the instrument and the 
witness of this change, " to serve the living and true 
God, and to w T ait for His Son from heaven, even Jesus, 
w 7 hich delivered us from the wrath to come."* 

We w T ould now ask you, my brethren, whether you 
ever heard these tidings which were so remarkably 
propagated in all the countries of the East? Have 
they reached you ? Have you listened to them ? The 
aspect of the world at present seems to resemble but 
too strikingly the scene w r hich was witnessed in Asia 
and Greece before this proclamation. Men are busy 
with the absurd theories of human wisdom ; they are 
seeking joys w T hich often prove fatal ; they are absorb- 
ed in material interests ; they are occupied as the Athe- 
nians were, in telling and hearing some new thing. But 
have they heard the great news ? I know not ; but I 
fear that there are many who are not yet aware that the 
Gospel is preached, and that it is preached to the poor. 
The object of this Meditation shall be the instruction of 
those who are ignorant of this. We will first endeav- 
or to settle the fact of the publication of the Gospel ; 
secondly, we will describe the state in which we can 
best be profited by its publication. 
* 1 Ttess.., l % 9, ict 



THE PUBLICATION OF THE GOSPEL. 53 

THE GOSPEL IS PREACHED. 
IT IS PREACHED TO THE POOR. 

These are the truths which we desire to develop. 
And do Thou, O Lord ! whose hand was with the apos- 
tles,* when for the first time this news was published in 
the world, be with us now !• May Thy word be power- 
ful, and subject many hearts unto Thyself, bringing ev- 
ery thought into captivity and obedience unto Thee ! 
Amen. 



THE GOSPEL IS PREACHED. 

The Gospel is preached. What tidings does it bring? 
Oh ! if men understood them, how soon should we see 
them arising out of their state of lukewarmness ! How 
soon would their excitement cease, and they stop to lis- 
ten to them ! This news, which they esteem so lightly, 
is the most surprising and delightful message that can 
be proclaimed here below. It brings tidings of pardon 
granted, of reconciliation effected. It brings tidings of 
peace. It certifies to us that God, who dwells in heav- 
en, has graciously approached the guilty human race ; 
that He remembers our iniquities no more, and makes 
an everlasting covenant with every one who accepts the 
pardon He proclaims. At the same time, marvelous 
facts, calculated to dispel all fear in our hearts, are an- 
nounced to us. The Son of God, the promised Savior, 
expected from the beginning of the world, foretold to 
Israel by so many types, the object of inquiry in so 
many absurd superstitions of the Gentiles, has appeared 
in the flesh. He has given His life for those who were 
to be saved. The blood which He has shed obliterates 
their sins. And now the heralds of that Gospel address 

* Acts, xi., 21, 

E 2 



54 BISCOURSES AND ESSA¥S'«r 

all men in these admirable words ; " In time past ye' 
were strangers from the covenants of promise, having 
no hope, and without God in the world ; but now ye f 
who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood 
of Christ. He came and preached peace to you which 
were afar off, and to them that were nigh. He recon- 
cileth both unto God in one body by the cross. Now 
therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but 
fellow-citizens with the saints^ and of the household of 
God."* There is no want on earth which this heavenly 
message will not satisfy. God has sent it -to put an end 
to all our sufferings. Now the disease of man is healed. 
With the forgiveness of his sins God has given him all 
things. Does he feel that he is a stranger to God, and 
does he mourn over that estrangement ? This message 
announces that he is adopted as a child, through the be- 
loved Son.f Is he without hope and without any thing 
to console him in the midst of the misery of the present 
life ? This message announces that he is made " an 
heir of eternal life, heir of God, and joint-heir with 
Christ."J Does he despair of subduing sin, which is 
powerful in his flesh? This message announces that 
" he can do all things through Christ which strengthen- 
eth him."§ Does he dread the attacks and snares of 
the world, and of all the enemies of his salvation ? This 
message announces that the Master whom he serves 
has received " all power in heaven and on earth, and is 
at the right hand of God, making intercession for him."|| 
This message provides for every circumstance. Christ 
has brought us all we need. A new state of things be- 
gins for the human race. Those who were weak have 
become strong.il " The grace of God that bringeth sal- 
vation hath appeared to all men."** 

* Eph., ii. t John, i., 12. t Rom., viii., 17. 

§ Phil., iv., 13. I! Matt., xxviii., 18 ; Rom., viii., 34. 

<JF Rom., ^,,6. ** Titus, ii., 11. 



THE PUBLICATION OF THE GOSPEL. 55 

What are the things which men call great, and which 
are the subjects of their thoughts and conversations? 
The Gospel is equal, nay, superior to them all. The 
most pompous expressions of human language, those 
which recall the objects of man's veneration, we can 
scarcely presume to apply to the Gospel of Christ. The 
Gospel is a Covenant; but not a covenant between 
men ; it is one in which God establishes peace with 
man ; the terms, on the one hand, are, forgiveness of 
sins, and the gift of life everlasting ; and, on the part of 
man, repentance and belief on the name of the Lord 
Jesus Christ. The Gospel is a Decide of Amnesty ; but 
a decree emanating from that Being who is " God, 
from everlasting to everlasting," and publishing the rev- 
ocation of the exile of the children of Adam, and the 
restoration of their primitive glory. The Gospel is a 
Charter of Freedom ; but the great, the real charter of 
freedom, given to the posterity of Adam — a charter 
which puts an end to the only real slavery, and which 
is granted in pure mercy, men having no title to it. The 
Gospel is the act of the mercy of God, who stoops to 
relieve man lying in sin, and take him to His arms. 

If such be the contents of the Gospel, how important 
is it that the tidings of it be spread every where ! The 
salvation of man depends on its publication. " Whoso- 
ever will call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 
How, then, shall they call on Him in whom they have 
not believed ? And how shall they believe in Him of 
whom they have not heard ?"* 

My brethren, we have no reason to complain ; the 
Gospel is preached. God has taken proper measures. 
He has established in the world institutions whose sole 
object is to proclaim His forgiveness, and which will 
remain as long as the sinful race of Adam exists. 

* Rom., x., 13, 14. 



56 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

In how many ways we can learn that God offers 
peace to men, and that they ought now to be friends ! 
God proclaims this news in His word. It is a letter 
sent by Him, addressed to all men, carried to every 
part of the world, on every page of which He says to 
every creature that " He so loved the world that He 
gave His only begotten Son for it."* God proclaims 
this news through His ministers. " Rise, and stand 
upon thy feet," He says ; " I make thee a minister and 
a witness, and I send thee to the Gentiles, to open their 
eyes."f And they go and preach. Faithful to their 
charge, they preach " the Gospel of Christ, which is the 
power of God unto salvation. "J There is no person 
who can not learn from these ambassadors the message 
which they bear. God publishes this news by His sacra- 
ments ; the Holy Supper will " show the Lord's death till 
He come."§ This sacred mystery ever remains in the 
midst of the Christian people. And if the word of God 
were taken from it, if the voice of the ministers of God 
were hushed, this feast, commemorative of the death of 
the Lord, this bread, which is the communion in His 
body, this wine, which is the communion in His blood, 
would speak with a power increased by the fact that 
they would speak alone, and would announce to every 
humble soul eager to attain salvation, that " the Lamb 
was slain,"|| that " the blood of the New Testament was 
shed for many for the remission of sins."^[ 

Yes, my brethren, the great tidings are announced in 
the world, and these voices which were to publish them 
have never been silent. Sooner would the sun cease 
to illuminate the earth, than the publication of the Gos- 
pel cease to console the heart. If we look behind, we 
see a cloud of witnesses who have proclaimed it ; if we 

* John, iii., 16. t Acts, xxvi., 16-18. \ Rom., i., 16. 

$ 1 Cor., xi., 26. " Rev., v., 12. % Matt., xxvi., 28. 



THE PUBLICATION OF THE GOSPEL. 57 

look at the present time, we see a cloud of witnesses 
who are still proclaiming it. This news, that " giveth life 
unto the world,"* will be carried by the Church unto 
all generations till the end of time. Our latest descend- 
ants will hear it as we have heard it, and will rejoice 
in it as we do now. And even if men kept silence, the 
very stones would cry out. Day unto day uttereth 
speech concerning it, and night unto night showeth 
knowledge. 

The Gospel is preached. It is preached every where. 
The Lord has published the tidings of forgiveness in 
every language, to every tribe, to every nation of the 
earth. " I saw an angel fly in the midst of heaven," 
says St. John, " having the everlasting Gospel to preach 
unto them that dwell on the earth."! In the countries 
where the Church of Christ is already triumphant, the 
message is proclaimed, and all can hear it. Say not 
that in so many places superstition or unbelief is still 
opposing it. There is not an infidel who does not know 
that message ; and the very declaration that he will 
not believe it proves that he knows it. In vain would 
superstition cover the pure Gospel of God with a human 
attire ; the splendor of the truth pierces the useless 
veil. There is not a being who does not know why 
the Church exists, and what the object of the Gospel of 
Christ is on earth. And in those distant countries which 
the Prince of darkness has shrouded, a voice of rejoi- 
cing is also heard : " The feet of them that bring good 
tidings, that publish peace," are seen on every " mount- 
ain.";); " Their line is gone out through all the earth, 
and their words to the end of the world."§ " The day- 
spring from on high hath visited" all the inhabitants of 
the world, " to guide their feet into the way of peace."|| 

* John, iii., 33. t Rev., xiv., 6. t Isai., i., 2, 7. 

$ Ps. xix., 4. II Luke, i., 78, 79. 



58 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

Thus, my brethren, the Gospel is really preached on 
earth. No monarch ever took more pains to have 
his ordinances proclaimed than the Lord has taken to 
publish His ordinance of peace, His decree of forgive- 
ness. It is inscribed every where, it is proclaimed every 
where. No one who sees and hears can avoid seeing 
and hearing it. " Peace ! peace to him that is afar off, 
and to him that is near, saith the Lord ; and I will heal 
him. Declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of 
the earth ; say ye, The Lord hath redeemed His ser- 
vant Jacob."* 

Athenians, who spend your time in nothing else but 
either to tell or to hear some new thing, f shall I tell 
you something new ? Listen, then, to the news. It is 
this : God has made peace with man ; " the acceptable 
year of the Lord"J is published over the whole earth. 
This is the news. There may be other tidings for na- 
tions, families, or individuals ; but this is the general 
news, the news for all nations, families, and individuals. 
And every man ought for once, at least, to listen to it. 
He ought, some time or other, to awake and exclaim, 
" This is a real and wonderful fact, which I never knew 
before. The Gospel is preached to me. The Son of 
God was manifest in the flesh, and He gives me peace. 
Oh, this is new to me ; henceforth it shall be my only 
treasure !" 

How many, my brethren, are in need of hearing this 
message ! How many fainting souls there are, who 
" do hunger and thirst after righteousness !"§ There is 
a secret voice within the heart of every man that calls 
for the Gospel and for reconciliation with God. Man- 
kind are in mourning till they hear it ; for they have 
lost an inheritance. They know and feel this, and the 
Gospel alone can give that inheritance back. 

*Isa.,lvii., 19; xlviii.,20. t Acts,xvii.,21. % Isa.,lxi.,2. $Matt.,v.,6. 



THE PUBLICATION OF THE GOSPEL. 59 

What joy there ought now to be on earth ! The 
Gospel, " the good tidings of great joy,"* is preached. 
Rejoice, ye who "have wandered in a solitary way; 
the Lord leads you forth by the right way, that ye may 
go to a city of habitation."! Rejoice, ye who were 
" sitting in darkness, and in the shadow of death ; the 
Lord hath saved you out of your distresses, and hath 
cut the bars of iron in sunder."J Rejoice, ye who 
" were afflicted because of your transgression, and be- 
cause of your iniquities ; for the Lord hath sent His 
word and healed you, and delivered you."§ 

Lord ! Thy throne is in the heavens ! O Thou " who 
livest, and wast dead, and art alive for evermore,"|| 
Thou reignest ! " All things have been put under Thy 
feet,"H and now Thou presidest over the preaching of 
that news which cost Thee Thine own blood ! Then 
we will be of good cheer. Thou, Lord ! wilt preserve 
it unto the end. Thou wilt overcome all Thine ene- 
mies. Thou wilt not rest, till Thou shalt have " put 
down all rule, and all authority and power"**' which op- 
poses that Gospel of peace, and shalt have caused " all 
the ends of the earth to see Thy salvation !"ff 



IT IS PREACHED TO THE POOR. 

But why, my brethren, do not all men, throughout 
the world, rejoice in the preaching of the Gospel ? And 
if we ourselves have not yet received it, why is it so ? 

It will not be difficult to find a reason. Our very 

text gives us one. The Gospel is preached ; but one 

qualification is necessary for those who hear it. It is 

preached to the poor. 

* Luke, ii., 10. t Psalm cvii., 4, 7. J Psalm cvii., 10, 13, 16. 

$ Psalm cvii., 17, 20. || Rev., i., 18. V Eph., i., 22. 

** 1 Cor,, xv., 24. ft Isaiah, Hi., 10, 



60 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS, 

Bat do not mistake, my brethren, the nature of the 
poverty required by the Gospel. It is not temporal 
poverty. The poverty or the riches of the earth are 
objects of indifference in the kingdom of God ; they nei- 
ther confer nor take away any privilege. But this pov- 
erty is the poverty of the heart. " Blessed are the poor 
in spirit,"* says Jesus elsewhere, in explanation of the 
poverty of which He speaks. It consists in acknowl- 
edging one's self destitute, not of temporal goods, or as 
receiving support from others ; but destitute of eternal 
goods, of pardon and merit, and obliged to resort to 
another to obtain these. 

Yes, my brethren, it is to the poor that the Son of 
God causes His Gospel to be preached. " He hath fill- 
ed the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath 
sent empty away,"f said Mary, when she magnified the 
Lord. And in the parable of the Great Supper, which 
was emblematic of the publication of the Gospel, it was 
not those who had bought oxen and fields who sat down 
at the table ; but it was the poor, the maimed, the blind, 
and those who were in the highways and hedges. J 

And how can God enrich those who think themselves 
rich without His aid ? How can He consent that the 
robes of His righteousness should be merely an addi- 
tion to the unclean covering of man's righteousness? 
What glory would He derive from His mercy, if the 
mouth which sounded forth His praises should unite a 
mortal's name with His ; and if His redeemed said not 
with one accord, " It is Thou that givest us all we 
have. By Thy grace alone we live. Thou art our 
Alpha and our Omega ;§ we are of Thee, and through 
Thee, and belong unto Thee !"|| 

But can we receive the news which is announced to 

* Matt., v., 2. f Luke, i., 53. % Luke, xiv., 10-24. 

§ Rev., i., 8. II Rom., xi., 36. 



THE PUBLICATION OF THE GOSPEL. 61 

us ; if we are not poor in spirit ? Of what use to us is a 
message that speaks of reconciliation, so long as we do 
not feel that we are rebels ? If so, we do not need rec- 
onciliation. How can a message which proclaims for- 
giveness of sins concern us, so long as we have not ac- 
knowledged that our sins have made us guilty before 
God? We do not need forgiveness. How can we be 
in need of those tidings which would deliver us from all 
iniquity, if we have not discovered that " the power of 
sin binds us," and that we carry its bonds every where 
with us? We need no deliverance. However fre- 
quently it may be announced, we do not understand it, 
and can scarcely be said to hear it. Who thinks of 
healing, when he has not felt the sore ? 

" But no," you may reply ; " there is another reason 
which prevents me from paying attention to the news 
which the Gospel publishes. Faith is no easy thing ; it 
is not given to every one. If I do not believe, it is re- 
ally because I have not the strength to believe !" Not 
at all, my dear brother ; if you do not believe, it is be- 
cause you are not poor. Before we believe in the re- 
ality of the aid, we must believe in the reality of our 
want of it ; when we do that, the truth of the former 
becomes self-evident. If you acknowledge the true 
state of your soul, all your weakness and hesitation will 
cease. As the man who, on opening his eyes, sees that 
he is in imminent peril, and seizes with unwonted 
strength the help which is offered him : so you would 
unhesitatingly seize the aid which this message tenders 
to you ; and the peace which it would immediately im- 
part would show you, more clearly than any thing else 
can, that this really is God's appointed remedy ; and 
still oppressed by some doubts, you would cast your- 
self at the foot of the cross of the Redeemer who saves 

F 



62 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

you, "saying with tears: Lord, I believe; help Thou 
mine unbelief!"* 

" But no ; that is not the reason either : if I do not 
receive this news with eagerness, it is because I see 
nothing worthy of God in it ; there is, in the Gospel, 'no 
form nor comeliness when we see it !' In my eyes, it is 
1 despised, and not esteemed/ "f And why do you not 
see that beauty in the glorious Gospel of our Lord which 
so many discern in it ? Ah ! learn your nakedness, and 
then you will learn "the unsearchable riches of Christ !"J 
So long as you are rich, the Gospel will appear poor to 
you ; but become poor, and then you will find it rich. 
Our poverty restores its value to it. Oh, how glorious 
is the Gospel, when we know that it alone can save ! 
Thus the prodigal son, who, in times of plenty, despised 
his father's table, esteemed highly what he once de- 
spised, when forced to feed swine, and said, with bitter- 
ness, " How many hired servants of my father's have 
bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger !"§ 

" Well," you perhaps continue, " I can understand 
that this external humility of the Gospel may conceal 
Divine grandeur; but it is not this that keeps me from 
approaching it. The distractions and occupations of 
the world prevent my doing so." You are right, my 
iear brother ; we will not deny it ; the attractions of 
ihe world are a source of ruin to many ; our Lord 
teaches us this.|| But if a feeling of poverty came over 
you in the midst of the enjoyments of the world, do you 
suppose that they could drive it away ? With what scorn 
would you turn away from those empty phantoms, if 
your soul hungered after "the true bread, which cometh 
down from heaven !"^I Your poverty would drive you 
to the Cross of Jesus Christ, to seek for life there. How 

* Mark, ix., 24. f Isaiah, liii., 2, 3. J Eph., iii., 8. 

$ Luke, xv., 17. || Matt., xiii., 22. f John, vi., 33. 



THE PUBLICATION OF THE GOSPEL. 63 

many " brands" have already been thus " plucked out 
of the burning !"* 

Yes, my brethren, the ignorance in which man is liv- 
ing, with reference to his own wretchedness, is the 
greatest obstacle to the reception of the Gospel ; it is 
the reason why this generation possesses neither peace 
nor salvation. It is this which impedes the progress of 
the kingdom of heaven. It is this that prevents the 
waters from flowing over the parched earth. This is 
the link by which Satan still holds the sons of Adam in 
chains, although deliverance has been proclaimed from 
the Cross. 

Become poor, then, my brethren, that ye may become 
rich. And is this poverty so concealed to you that you 
can not discover it ? How often have you had a feel- 
ing of emptiness in your soul ! When have you ever 
possessed that which an immortal being should have? 
And is not that sense of emptiness poverty ? But if 
something is wanting in your heart, do you not also dis- 
cover in it propensities rebellious to the law of Him who 
made you ? And have not these propensities been work- 
ing upon your heart ? Ah ! far from being able to enu- 
merate the rebellions into which they have led you, do 
you not find that your whole life has been one continued 
revolt against God ? And how will you cloak these 
faults from the eyes of your Judge ? Will you resort 
to any of your own works ? Which of them will you 
adduce that does not, in itself, deserve to be hidden 
from Him ? Yet those crimes can not thus remain un- 
covered. Devoid of holiness, overcome by sin, self-ac- 
cused at the bar of God, and without any thing to ex- 
culpate you — see, O see your misery ! Is it not evi- 
dent to you ? 

" Prepare ye, prepare ye the way of the Lord ! Let 

* Amos, iv., 11, 



64 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

every mountain be brought low, and all flesh shall see 
the salvation of God."* A message of pardon comes 
from heaven, and the earth must prepare to hear it. 
Forsake to-day, my brethren, all your proud thoughts, 
and behold your nakedness. You have acknowledged 
that you are of little value in the sight of God ; take, 
now, a more difficult step : acknowledge that you are 
of none. So long as you hesitate to do this you can 
not be truly poor. Cast off every covering, throw down 
your rich habiliments, and humble yourselves in the 
presence of the Lord. Conceal those robes, now, in 
this house, and seek only the white robe of Christ's 
righteousness. It will be given you then ; for " the poor 
have the Gospel preached to them." 

And what season, my brethren, can be more appro- 
priate, on which to preach that Gospel to you, than this 
solemn day, when you are about to receive the bread 
and the wine, those sacred symbols of the body and the 
blood which were offered up for our sins ? Generations 
pass away, and are called to appear before the bar of 
God ; but as they pass they have the Gospel preached 
unto them, to save them from the wrath to come. I 
will then preach that Gospel to you too ; on this day, 
and at this hour, I will proclaim in your midst that mes- 
sage which the voice of the apostle once published at 
Iconium and at Corinth ; I will bring it to this part of 
the Lord's heritage, one of the smallest, it is true, but 
not less precious in His eyes on that account, and a large 
flock of which will, I trust, stand one day before the 
throne. " The Spirit of the Lord hath anointed me to 
preach good tidings unto the meek ; He hath sent me 
to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the 
captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are 
bound ; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."f 

* Luke, hi., 4-6. t Isaiah, lxi., 1. 2. 



THE PUBLICATION OF THE GOSPEL. 65 

I come, then, my brethren, in the footsteps of so many 
ambassadors of Christ, who, in all ages, have preached 
the Gospel, to deliver unto yon, feebly, it is true, yet 
boldly and joyfully, this testimony which has been com- 
mitted unto me : " God so loved the world, that He gave 
His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in 
Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."* " The 
Word was made flesh."f " Christ gave Himself for 
our sins."J " Peace, peace to him that is far off, and 
to him that is near, saith the Lord ; and I will heal 
him."§ "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, 
and we pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to 
God."|| 

Such are the tidings which are published, and which 
we bring you to-day. That Gospel which is preached 
over the whole earth has come to you now. The tid- 
ings of great joy are now published within these walls. 
Have you never heard them before, my brethren ? Oh ! 
how many there are among you to whom it is suited ! 
How many to whom God has caused it to be proclaim- 
ed ! Oh ! ye who are poor in spirit, who weep often 
over your sins, to you the Gospel is preached ! You 
are told that the Lord forgets all your iniquities, and 
that in Christ He communicates His eternal righteous- 
ness to you. Oh ! ye who are thirsty, who seek peace 
and happiness, and can not find them either in yourselves 
or in any other creature, to you the Gospel is preached ; 
the living fountain of happiness is open to you ; " God 
hath given to you eternal life ; and this life is in His 
Son."^[ Oh ! ye who have even become lukewarm, who 
have been overcome by the allurements of the world, who 
have obeyed the lusts of the flesh, and have wandered 
in the dark paths of sin, to you the Gospel is preached. 

* John, iii., 16. t John, i., 14. X Gal., i., 4. 

§ Isaiah, lvii., 19. || 2 Cor., v., 20. f Uohn, v., 11. 

F2 



66 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

For your souls Christ has died ; His blood can wash 
away your sins too, and to you also He can impart the 
pardon which He proclaims. Then leave the bond- 
age of this death. " Look upon Him whom you have 
pierced ;"* be reconciled unto Him, and receive from 
Him a new heart. 

The Gospel is preached unto you now, my brethren ; 
this is a certain truth, of which you are witnesses. The 
Lord, who designs to give peace to your souls, offers 
you reconciliation. I display all His mercies before 
you. This fact, I repeat, you can see and hear, and 
you can bear witness to its truth. The Gospel is preach- 
ed to you. Ah ! I doubt not that the angels of God are 
rejoicing that such a favor is granted unto you ; and 
what joy would there be in heavenf if one soul awoke 
at the sound of this proclamation, and formed an eter- 
nal covenant with God, sealed with the blood of Jesus 
Christ ! The Gospel is preached unto you ; give ear to 
this publication. Henceforth you can not stand before 
the throne in any other character than as having had 
His Gospel of peace announced to you at His com- 
mand. Oh ! may He never have to say to you, in allu- 
sion to this hour, " I would have gathered you together, 
and ye would not !"J 

The Lord fulfills His work toward you. The Lord 
causes His pardon to be proclaimed unto you. Receive 
it, then, with joy ! The Gospel is preached unto you. 
God grant that, throughout eternity, you may bless the 
hour when you heard it ! May it be the instrument of 
saving your souls ! Amen. 

* Zech., xii., 10. | Luke, xv., 7. i Matt., xxiii., 37. 



THE SERVICE OF JESUS CHEIST. 67 



IV. THE SERVICE OF JESUS CHRIST, 

A HOMILY. 

" Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. 
And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant : because thou hast been 
faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities." — Luke, xix., 
16, 17. 

It is the destiny of man to serve. Having lost his 
innocence, he has lost his liberty. He serves, even 
when he imagines that he enjoys the most perfect inde- 
pendence. He serves his own passions and prejudices, 
or the passions and prejudices of others, or else some 
other master. Within ourselves, or around us, we may 
be certain to find masters. It frequently happens that 
what we call freedom is but another species of slavery. 
A man who is at liberty to do what he pleases, a son, 
for instance, who has left his father's house, is perhaps 
at that very time living in a peculiarly painful slavery ; 
for, instead of having one master without, he has sev- 
eral within. 

Man must serve. Do you not agree with us, my 
brethren, in thinking that his welfare must depend on 
the nature of the master whom he serves ? For you 
know that " Like master, like servant," is a popular 
axiom. Man will do right so long as he has a good 
master; but when his master is wicked, nothing but 
evil can be expected of him. Of all masters, there is 
one whom all will readily acknowledge to be the best. 
That Master is God. What an influence must He exert 
upon his subjects! And what blessings must He im- 
part ! To serve God is to serve sovereign truth and 
righteousness, and, consequently, to escape all the de- 



68 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

luding tyrants who make us miserable. Oh, blessed 
slavery ! which will release us from all other slavery. 
Oh, glorious slavery ! which, in restoring man's inno- 
cence, gives him back his liberty also, true, eternal lib- 
erty ! Oh, blessed Master ! who, in His mercy, sets 
free those who were bom in slavery, and receives them 
into His house as sons : " Ye are no more servants, but 
sons!"* Such are the words which the Gospel ad- 
dresses to all. This is the Being to whose kingdom all 
other power should yield. This is the only Master 
who can benefit man. And this every one must, soon- 
er or later, perceive. 

But is God a master whom we may endeavor to 
serve? Yes, my brethren, God has chosen to give 
men the power to become His servants ; and for this 
purpose He was manifested in the flesh, in the person 
of His beloved Son. God is now One of those masters 
among whom we may choose. We will consider with 
you to-day the practical part of this service of Jesus 
Christ. In this light only will we examine it. You 
will then acknowledge that, while every other service 
deludes and ruins man, this renders him useful on earth 
and happy in heaven. In our text we have the history 
of a certain master and his servant. We shall simply 
consider 

THE WORDS OF THE SERVANT, and 
THE WORDS OF THE MASTER. 

The words of the servant will draw our attention to 
this world, and will teach us what we have to do here ; 
the words of the master will transport us to heaven, 
and will teach us what we have to hope for or to fear, 
as we may have entered upon or forsaken the service 
referred to. 

* Gal.,iv.,7. 



THE SERVICE OF JESUS CHRIST. 59 

Do Thou, O Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ! give 
us the spirit of wisdom and understanding ! Amen. 



I. In considering the history of this servant, the ques- 
tion will naturally arise, Where did he find the means 
to serve his master ? To whom did the money which 
he had so greatly increased belong? Was it his own? 
Had he acquired it by his own efforts, or had he inher- 
ited it from his ancestors ? Not at all, my brethren ; 
" Thy pound !" he says to his master ; "it is thine, Lord ! 
I was a poor servant ; I owned not a farthing ; but 
when thou wentest away, thou gavest me a pound, and 
it was that pound which I have thus increased !" Be- 
hold, then, my hearer, the source from which you must 
draw all power and strength ; it is Jesus Christ ; and it 
is only by means of what He has given you that you 
can gain something more. " What !" you exclaim, 
" have I not sufficient ability in myself? Do I not pos- 
sess much penetration of mind, much activity, and many 
other qualities besides?" Perhaps you do, my dear 
brother ; but these are not the things with which you 
must labor for that Master ; or, rather, you must 
have the pound which the grace of Jesus Christ can 
give you, before you can use those talents to advantage 
in this service. The servant also had strength ; yet, if 
one pound had not been given him, he could not have 
gained the other ten. So long as a man has not re- 
ceived love to God and man from Jesus Christ, the only 
object of all his labors is to benefit himself; he him- 
self is the idol whom he worships and serves ; and 
even while he seems to be seeking the interests of his 
brethren with the greatest earnestness, he is only work- 
ing for himself. Having nothing of his own, he can 
give nothing away. Having no funds of his own, he 



70 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

can gain nothing. He must seek the necessary ad- 
vance. He will find it in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. 
He must know that the Son of God gave Himself for 
him, that He might redeem him from all iniquity."* 
He must acknowledge that it is but reasonable that, 
having been " bought with a price," he should hence- 
forth " glorify God."f He must ask Christ to give him 
what He came to give the world ; " a new heart and a 
new spirit,"J that he may serve Him aright. This is 
the pound. With it you will receive ability to do right. 
From that time your words and deeds will be blessings, 
for they will be prompted by charity. " He that abid- 
eth in me, and I in him," says Christ, " the same bring- 
eth forth much fruit ; for without me ye can do nothing."^ 
Begin to seek it, then, if you have not received any 
thing yet. Ask for your pound. Do not fear lest Jesus 
should refuse to give it. His work as a master is to 
distribute. "A certain nobleman," He says, in this 
parable, " went into a far country. And he called his 
ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said 
unto them, ' Occupy till I come.'"|| If He even gave a 
pound to the wicked servant, do you suppose that He 
will send you away empty ? 

But how much did the servant receive ? Was it a 
great treasure ? Was it a large territory ? " Lord," 
he says, " behold, here is thy pound !" It was a pound, 
my brethren, that this nobleman, who was going to ac- 
quire a kingdom for himself, left his servant ! How small 
a thing ! Did not the servant despise this paltry sum ? 
Was he not tempted, like the other servant, to wrap it 
up in a napkin, to bury it in the ground ? By no means. 
On the contrary, he immediately began to use his pound in 
trade, just as though he had received a great treasure ! 

* Titus, ii., 14. t 1 Cor., vi., 20. % Ezekiel, xxxvi., 26. 

§ John, xv., 5. II Luke, xix., 12, 13. 



THE SERVICE OF JESUS CHRIST. 71 

But perhaps, my dear brother, unlike him, you com- 
plain ; perhaps you are anxious about your own desti- 
ny, when you look at the small value of the pound which 
you have received ; perhaps you say, There are many 
to whom much is given ; let them act, let them trade, 
let them serve God ! These things do not concern me ! 
Ah ! my dear hearer, act well your part to-day, and to- 
morrow you will receive a greater sum. " Unto ev- 
ery one that hath," says Jesus Christ, " shall be given, 
and he shall have abundance."* And Solomon says, 
" The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth 
more and more unto the perfect day."f But you can 
not contribute, you say, either to the welfare of your 
brethren or to the glory of God. You are seriously 
mistaken, my dear brother. Each has his duty in life, 
and can fulfill it : do not neglect yours. It is true that 
the Scriptures tell us, that sometimes the master gives 
a servant ten talents, which is a large sum. But this 
servant had received only one pound, yet he was act- 
ive. Oh, you who have received but little from the 
Lord (and certainly the majority here belong to this 
class), cease your distrust ! Let your efforts be unceas- 
ing, and be of good cheer ! If you are restricted to an 
unknown sphere, this is another reason why you should 
labor ; for if you do not, who will ? Let your weak- 
ness be a matter of encouragement, not of timidity ; for 
the weaker we are, and the more we feel it, the more 
God will assist us ; and a little of God's strength is worth 
all man's. " When I am weak " says Paul, " then am I 
strong."J He who made the universe out of nothing 
can certainly do a great deal with the little He has given 
you ! The principles of His government are the re- 
verse of those of the governments of the world. He 
has chosen small things to accomplish great objects. A 
* Matt., xxv., 29. t Prov„, iv., 18. % 2 Cor., xii, 10, 



72 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

few obscure and illiterate men, devoid of riches or pow- 
er, came forward to found His kingdom ; and imme- 
diately the idols of the nations fell, the kingdom of dark- 
ness was overthrown, and the salvation of the world 
was established. Oh, how much more good would be 
done, if each did what little is in his power ! It is not 
by great efforts that the foundations of real prosperity 
are to be laid, but by the insignificant labors of each in 
the sphere in which he is placed. The strongest wind 
can not shake the rock, but the drops of rain will loos- 
en it from its place ; it is not of importance whether 
we have much or little, but whether we are faithful. 
And if you were the most miserable of beings, you 
might be faithful in your misery, and do a great deal 
with the little that your faithfulness gains. 

But what, then, have we to do 1 What did this ser- 
vant work for? To accomplish his master's business, 
of course ; the nobleman went away on a journey, and 
it was natural that he should leave it in the hands of 
his servants. Very well, my brethren ; in what other 
bank, then, ought you to place your pound, that it may 
gain other pounds, than, to use your own expression, in 
the business of Jesus Christ ? Jesus Christ has gone 
away ; but He has left you here to manage His affairs. 
His ministry should be your ministry. If the Eternal 
Light dwells no longer in our midst, each of its servants 
should reflect its splendor. Behold, my brethren, this 
beautiful plan of life ! And what are the affairs of Je- 
sus Christ 1 Obedience and mercy. All that can con- 
tribute to the happiness of man or to the glory of God, 
then, should now become the great object of your life. 
Oh, there is a great work for the man who wishes to 
spend his life in " going about to do good !" # Much 
assistance ought to be given to all who partake of the 

* Acts, x., 33, 



THE SERVICE OF JESUS CHRIST. 73 

weakness of our nature. And how great is that weak- 
ness ! We must " deal our bread to the poor ; bring 
the poor that are cast out to our houses ; and when we 
see the naked, we must cover them."* " The true 
Light, which lighteth every man,"f must be manifested 
to all men, and all must find in Christ " wisdom, and 
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption."J 
How much ignorance still remains to be dissipated ! 
how many diseases to be cured ! how many unknown 
blessings to be given ! And who but the servants of 
Christ will perform this work, which is the work of all 
men, and in all ages, and was the work of Jesus Him- 
self? — Yes, this is all very true, you say ; it is the work 
of Christ's servants, the ministers of His word, but it is 
not ours ! Not yours ? We certainly acknowledge 
with joy, yet with fear, that this work is emphatically 
intrusted to the ministers of Christ; but how can any 
disciple of Christ be entirely exempt from it ? It is true 
that the Scriptures teach us that Christ "gave some, 
apostles ; and some, prophets ; and some, evangelists ; 
and some, pastors and teachers ;"§ but, besides this 
ministry, to which you do not belong, He has establish- 
ed another, to which you do belong. It is that active 
ministry which He instituted, when He said unto all 
His disciples : " Let your light so shine before men, that 
they may see your good works, and glorify your Fa- 
ther which is in heaven."|| And, indeed, admirable as 
is the ministry with which we are clothed, yours is in 
no wise inferior to it. 

Yes, my dear brother, acknowledge that which has 
been committed to you. You are the servant and the 
minister of Jesus Christ. Were you not consecrated 
to the service of the living and true God in baptism ? 

* Is., lviii., 7. f John, i., 9. |1 Cor., i., 30, 

$ Eph., iv., 11. || Matt., v., 16. 

G 



74 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS, 

When you received your pound, you were placed in 
the field of action. It was not to His apostles only, but 
to all His disciples, to all nations, and for all times, that 
Jesus Christ said, " Ye are the salt of the earth ; ye are 
the light of the world."* They ought, therefore, to be 
ever shining in the midst of darkness, and to purify that 
which is corrupt. How great is the ministry, and how 
great are the transactions and speculations in which 
you are engaged ! And in this there is nothing that 
you can not accomplish. Jesus Christ fulfilled His min- 
istry in the streets and highways. And it is in the 
same way that the duties of the priesthood to which 
you belong are to be performed ; not in a lonely sanc- 
tuary, but in the midst of the world. Be compassionate 
toward all men, and you will be continually fulfilling 
the ministry of Jesus Christ. The churches in which 
He calls you to officiate are your own dwellings, and 
the places where you perform your duties. Mothers 
and the heads of families ought to perform this work in 
their houses. And the more you mingle with the world, 
the more opportunities you will have for serving the 
Lord. 

But by what rules did the servant do his master's 
work? We have reason to suppose that he endeav- 
ored to act in all cases just as his master had done. 
So faithful a servant must have loved his Lord's exam- 
ple. Ah ! my brethren, shall we not, as the servants 
of so kind a master, take for our pattern the example 
that Christ has set us ? How delightful it ought to be to 
us to do as Jesus did ! Jesus did not " seek His own 
glory, but His glory that sent Him."f And in like 
manner let all efforts be made for Jesus Christ, who 
sends us. Let every thing we do be done for His sake, 
and because we owe Him an immense debt. Jesus 

* Matt., v., 13, 14. t John, vii., 18. 



THE SERVICE OF JESUS CHRIST. 75 

prayed to His Father when He was about to perform 
an action, and afterward He gave thanks to Him. # 
Let us not suppose, then, that we can do any good 
thing without having first prayed to our Master ; and 
when it shall have been done, let us return thanks to 
Him who alone is the author of it. Jesus took every 
opportunity to do good. When He happened to be at 
Cana, He performed His first miracle there ;f when He 
met a blind man, He restored his sight.J Let us like- 
wise make it a rule not so much to seek extraordinary 
opportunities as to keep a vigilant watch for all those 
which daily life may afford us ; then good works will not 
be wanting. Let us always do as Jesus did. Servants ! 
let your Master's life be your example in all things. 

And what was the final result of this servant's la- 
bors ? " Thy pound hath gained ten other pounds," 
said he to the master. A single pound gained ten ! 
The business in which the servant was engaged pro- 
duced a thousand for a hundred ! How great was this 
profit, my brethren! There are certainly not many 
speculations in this world which have been as suc- 
cessful as this ! Such will be the result with you if 
you engage in the work of which we speak. God 
gives His blessing abundantly in this matter. Do not 
fear that He will be sparing in this ; the glory of 
His name and the happiness of His creatures are 
concerned. In all your other labors success is doubt- 
ful ; but in this it can not be so. " Ye are laborers 
together with God ;"§ it is His work to give you suc- 
cess. Ten for one is the rate of interest in the busi- 
ness of His kingdom. And even if you may not hold 
the ten pounds in your hand, do not suppose that your 
labors were of no avail. The deeds of God's servants 
are the seeds of life, which will sooner or later take 
* John, xi., 41, 42. f Ibid., ii. t Ibid., ix. $ 1 Cor., iii., 9. 



76 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS, 

root, and bear much fruit. " As the rain cometh down, 
and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, 
but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and 
bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to 
the eater : so shall my word be."* 

Perhaps it is the will of God to exercise your faith and 
your patience ; and perhaps He will not let you see the 
fruit. Then sow as the husbandman does, trusting in 
that invisible power which will one day bring forth that 
which you have committed to Him. But your labor, 
even if it were lost upon others, will not be lost for you. 
This we learn from the words of the master. Let us 
listen to them. 



II. The servant had done his duty, and therefore the 
master rejoiced greatly in his conduct; he resolved to 
show his satisfaction by giving him a share in the gov- 
ernment of his kingdom ; he said to him, " Well, thou 
good servant ; because thou hast been faithful in a very 
little, have thou authority over ten cities." 

How great must have been the astonishment of the 
servant on hearing these words ! This will probably 
be our first thought. " What !" he must have exclaimed, 
" the government often cities is given to me, because I put 
one pound to profit in thine absence ! But, Lord ! thou 
owest me nothing for that ! Am I not thine ? And is it not 
my duty to perform thy business V- Should you not say so 
too, my dear brother, on receiving the recompense which 
your Master will assign you ? Will you not feel then 
that you have in no wise deserved it? What must you 
think of yourself, if you suppose that God owes you any 
thing ? Are you not His servant ? Do you not doubly 
belong to Him, both as His creature, and as ransomed 
* Is., lv., 10, 11. 



THE SERVICE OF JESUS CHRIST. 77 

by Him ? What, then, can you do beyond your duty ? 
And which of your works do you suppose deserves eter- 
nal happiness ? Select the purest of them ,• which of 
them is not so vile, when you consider it in the light of 
the word of God, of nature, or of the motives that 
prompted it, that you have reason to fear to present it 
to God, even as the fulfillment of your debt, much less as 
a merit which deserves immortality ! No, my brethren, 
God no more owes you the recompense than He did 
the pound ; He gave you one, of His own mercy, and it 
is in His mercy that He will give you the other. " Have 
thou authority over ten cities." Oh, how deeply this 
unexpected gift will make the believer feel his unwor- 
thiness, and the incomprehensible riches of Christ ! 

Nevertheless, though this is a wonderful fact, it is also 
a certain one. The Lord gives ten cities to him who 
gained ten pounds. And, indeed, it is only to him who 
has gained the ten pounds that He gives the ten cities ; 
he who has gained nothing can not receive any thing. 
"Because thou hast been faithful," says the Master. 
The word " because" teaches us that it is the Master's 
will that the work and the recompense should go togeth- 
er, although their connection is not apparent. And this 
also, my brethren, is the royal will of our King. This 
is a fundamental law of His kingdom, and we preach 
it to you beforehand. " The faithful servant," and he 
alone, will be crowned. You will be judged according 
to your deeds, and he who has been unprofitable shall be 
driven away in disgrace. And how could it be other- 
wise ? How can Jesus Christ, when He has taken pos- 
session of His kingdom, receive as acceptable servants 
those who have not applied themselves to good works? 
We know what Jesus was during His pilgrimage on 
earth ; we know that He went about doing good ;* how, 

* 1 Acts, x., 38. 

G2 



78 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

then, can those who have remained idle please this 
Master, who took no rest ? We know that the object 
of Christ's coming was, to create man unto good works, 
by restoring him to the glorious condition of a child of 
God ;* now how can he who has not attained the ob- 
ject which the first coming of the Lord had in view 
obtain the glory which His second coming will bring ? 
We know by what mark Jesus Christ recognizes His 
friends : it is that they do whatsoever He commands 
them ;f how, then, can He call that man His friend who 
has forgotten through life the great commandment of 
charity ? No, my brethren, we shall receive in heaven in 
proportion to what we shall have done on earth. Chris- 
tianity is emphatically a law of activity. The great ob- 
ject here is to labor. The object of the Son of God 
in coming into the world was not to let us go to sleep, 
but to gather a people from all parts of the earth that 
shall be adorned with good works. 

" Have thou authority," said the master to the right- 
eous servant, " over ten cities." This is written to in- 
struct us respecting the greatness of the reward. For 
to assign authority over ten cities to a servant to whom 
one pound had been intrusted, was certainly giving a 
great deal to one who had been faithful in a very little. 
And this is what Jesus will give on the last day ; with 
this distinction, that all will be on a far greater scale. 
There will be as little proportion between the glory 
given above and the talent intrusted here below, as 
there was between ten cities and the servant's pound. 
Do not be anxious about the reward. The omnipotent 
Being who created the universe will be forever occu- 
pied in giving it to you. " Eye hath not seen, nor ear 
heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the 
things which God hath prepared for them that love 

* Titus, ii., 14 ; Eph., ii., 10. f John, xv., 14. 



THE SERVICE OP JESUS CHRIST. 79 

Him."* Christ will share all things with us. His in- 
heritance will be our inheritance ; His kingdom will be 
our kingdom ; His power will be our power ; and His 
glory our glory. " Know ye not that we shall judge 
angels ?"f says St. Paul; and Jesus writes to Laodicea, 
46 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in 
my throne."J Do not suppose that such expressions 
are altogether figurative ; it is certain that a kingdom 
will be given unto him who shall have glorified God 
amid the sin and misery of this age. But that kingdom 
will not give him any peculiar grandeur, nor will it fill 
him with pride. It will ever be his boast that he is a 
servant of Jesus Christ. Christ Himself will always be 
the most precious crown of the believer. 

But if the words of the master must have filled the 
righteous servant with joy, what an impression must 
they have produced upon those who were present and 
heard them ! What must the unprofitable servant have 
thought? What must those who were not in this mas- 
ter's service have thought? What must others who 
were yet in the midst of their labors ? 

Ah ! as to the wicked servant, who, instead of im- 
proving his pound, wrapped it up in a napkin, and who, 
according to the parable, was coming up to render an 
account of it, how must he have been struck on hearing 
these words addressed to his companion : " Because 
thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou author- 
ity over ten cities !* Because, says the master ; what, 
then, will become of him whose pound hath gained 
nothing ? He trembles ; he is confounded already ; al- 
ready he hears those fearful words, " Out of thine own 
mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant ! Take 
from him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten 
pounds ; and cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer 

* 1 Cor., ii., 9, f 1 Cor,, vi. t 3, t Rev., iii., 21. 



80 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS, 

darkness."* To you, therefore, we speak, unprofitable 
servants ! May you likewise listen to these words be- 
fore it be too late. Oh, ye who have wrapped up your 
talent in a napkin, or have hidden it in the earth, think 
of the account that, without fail, will be required of 
you I Wicked servants ! do you suppose that you will 
always be at your ease as you are now ? Do you im- 
agine that the dream in which you delight will last for- 
ever, and that the dreadful truth that there is a Master 
who will one day require an account for the last far- 
thing, will never be realized ? Oh, ye who are slothful 
in well-doing, do not suppose that any thing can screen 
you from the shame that awaits you ! Whatever the 
cause of your sleep may be, unexpected ruin will fall 
upon you ; whether the riches, pleasures, and luxuries 
of life detain you in a state of uselessness ; or, trusting 
in what you call your virtues, your merits, or your right- 
eousness, you fall asleep in the thought that you are ac- 
ceptable in the eyes of the Lord, instead of endeavor- 
ing to become so by serving Jesus Christ, and by your 
good works ^ or whether, glorying in your high privi- 
leges, and boasting of peculiar favors, you deny by 
your life the faith which you profess with your mouth ;. 
and, calling Christ your Lord, you do not the will of His 
Father. " Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, 
thou wicked servant ! Take from him the pound, and 
give it to him that hath ten pounds : for unto every one 
which hath shall be given ; and from him that hath 
not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him." 
But if, among " them that stood by," of whom the 
parable speaks, who surrounded the king and heard his 
words, there were any who were not yet in his service, 
what must have been their feelings ! " Because thou 
hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority 

* Luke, xix,; Matt., xxv., 30. 



THE SERVICE OF JESUS CHRIST. 81 

over ten cities !" Oh, how ardently they must have 
wished to enter the service of a master who acted so 
nobly and rewarded so generously ! And you, my dear 
hearers, who are, perhaps, not yet in the service of the 
immortal King, you who are still subject to the world, 
or to sin, or to your own wills, forsake those masters ; 
you receive nothing but suffering in their service ; but 
if you serve Jesus Christ, " ye will have your fruit unto 
holiness, and the end everlasting life."* Yes, my breth- 
ren, we come to propose a new object for your ambi- 
tion ; we come to offer you authority in the kingdom 
of heaven — authority over ten cities ! Why are you so 
anxious to possess the riches and kingdoms of the 
world ? You can acquire a far nobler distinction, 
which will better supply the wants of a soul that will 
never die. By enlisting in the service of Jesus of Naz- 
areth, you can obtain eternal treasures and kingdoms, 
without as much pains as you apply to obtain your 
worthless treasures and to win your paltry glory. 
Come, and engage in this service. " Lay hold on eter- 
nal life, whereunto ye are also called ;" enter into " the 
good fight of faith ;"f " count all things but loss, for the 
excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus." J 

But perhaps there was some servant present to whom 
his master had also intrusted a pound, but who was still 
in the midst of his labors, and who had many difficulties 
to overcome. When he heard these words, with what 
new ardor he must have returned to his work ! Let 
the sight of the same recompense give the same strength 
and the same joy to you, O servants who are still in the 
midst of your service ! Perhaps you meet with many 
difficulties in the management of the pound which you 
have received ; perhaps your service is painful, and you 
gain the ten pounds by the sweat of your brow ; but 

* Rom., vi , 22, f 1 Tim., vi., 12. t Philip., iii, 8. 



82 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

look at the reward that awaits you ! It is worth all, 
and more than all, your trouble. " Wherefore lift up 
the hands that hang down, and the feeble knees."* Per- 
haps you have to undergo trials that are foreign to your 
work ; you must also drink of the bitter cup that is prof- 
fered to every member of the human family. Lift up 
your eyes, then ! look at that " crown of righteousness, 
which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give you at 
that day ;"f enter by faith into those mansions which the 
Master is now preparing for you ;J " rejoice in hope ; be 
patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer."§ 

Would that these reflections might arouse us all ! 
Would that we might receive new courage and strength 
to serve our God ! Would that we might be made 
" steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work 
of the Lord, forasmuch as we know that our labor is not 
in vain in the Lord."|| Yes, my brethren, none but the 
servant who goes to the banks and public places to gain 
ten pounds by his pound will be accepted by his master. 

Dear hearer, where is your pound ? What did you 
do with it when you received it ? Unhappy man ! you 
buried it in the ground ! Go, dig it up, exchange it for 
current money, trade with it, barter, and let it not re- 
main covered with rust. You must labor ; you must 
gain your living ; you must gain it here, penny by 
penny, and pound by pound. 

Yes, Lord ! we know and confess before all men that 
nothing but Thy grace can save us ; we know and con- 
fess before all men that nothing but the blood which 
flowed from the Cross of Jesus Christ can blot out our 
sins ! But we know, too, that, were we to glory in Thy 
grace, and to rest upon Thy bosom already, without 
having done our work, Thou wouldst indignantly reject 

* Heb., xii., 12. f 2 Tim., iv., 8. J John, xiv., 2. 

$ Rom., xii., 12. || 1 Cor., xv., 58. 



THE SERVICE OP JESUS CHRIST. 83 

us, and say to us before all men, " I never knew you. 
Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity." Lord ! let 
not this shameful lot be ours ! Create us unto good 
works ! Take us into Thy service ! Grant that we 
may be faithful ; and in the day when Thou comest to 
summon all mankind before Thee, may we hear from 
Thee the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant; 
thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make 
thee ruler over many things ; enter thou into the joy of 
thy Lord 1" Amen. 



V. THE DUTIES OF MASTERS TO THEIR 
HOUSEHOLDS. 

A DISCOURSE. 

" If any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, 
he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel."— 1 Timothy , v., 8. 

My Brethren, — In our days, more than ever before, 
men seem to perceive the evils to which the lower class- 
es of society are subject. Associations are forming in 
various countries, which have for their object the pre- 
vention or the cure of those evils. It is true that among 
these classes there are individuals, and even families, 
who, having persevered in the faith, " live soberly, right- 
eously, and godly."* Honored in their obscurity, they 
form part of the salt of the earth. But, generally speak- 
ing, who does not see that luxury, love of pleasure, in- 
temperance, and liability to corruption have rapidly 
increased ? All this is but too easily explained. The 
evil which began above has come down. Indifference 
and infidelity at first attacked the higher classes ; while 
the lower, guarded, as it were, by an invisible rampart, 
remained protected from the shock. But now, while 
the former are partly returning from their error, and 
partly acknowledging the impotency of the rules of hu- 
man wisdom, and the necessity of principles of piety, 
while those who were dead are often seen restored to 
life, the poison has reached the lower classes, and is 
continuing its ravages among them. They now reap 
what others so zealously sowed many years ago. We 
find a great many self-styled philosophers among the 
common people ; some even attain the bewildering 
heights of materialism, and deny the immortality of the 

* Titus, ii., 12. 



DUTIES OF MASTERS TO THEIR HOUSEHOLDS. 85 

soul ! The waters of infidelity, which first reached the 
highest peaks, are now gathering in the lowest parts oi 
the earth. The paralysis which attacked the head has 
descended to the inferior members of the body ; and it 
were in vain to free the head ; the body can not move 
while those parts are affected. Thus, my brethren, it is 
not without reason that attention is now turned to those 
classes. We desire to-day to direct your solicitude to 
individuals who belong to them, and who are within 
your reach : to " those of your own house," in the words 
of our text. We will not remind you that you ought to 
supply their wants, and give them wages proportionate 
to their work ; nor will we speak of other similar ob- 
ligations, which we trust you have not failed to fulfill. 
But we would speak to you of a higher duty ; a duty 
which, perhaps, you have not yet fulfilled ; a duty which 
relates to the moral welfare, to the salvation of your 
servants. It is not so much by general measures that 
the evil which we have pointed out can be remedied ; 
the cure must begin in every house. The duty which 
I have to insist upon is peculiarly applicable to those 
whom I am now addressing. In a language very dif- 
ferent from that of St. Paul addressing the Corinthi- 
ans,* I might say, " There are not many poor among 
you, not many weak." Listen, then, with attention, my 
brethren, and let your thoughts be concentrated here 
during this meditation ; but, at the same time, remember 
your own homes and those who dwell there, and do not 
forget that your relations toward them are now con- 
cerned. We will first point out a few motives for this 
duty ; we will then present some directions respecting 
the manner in which you should perform it. And do 
Thou, who art the Lord of masters and of servants, 
enlighten us by Thy Spirit ! Amen. 

* 1 Cor., i., 26, 

H 



86 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

MOTIVES. 

There are two things which ought to exert a great 
influence upon man : the first is the thought of duty ; 
and the second the thought of usefulness. The influ- 
ence of these motives has always been irresistible to 
noble minds ; either one of them ought of itself to be 
enough. If we think it our duty to undertake any enter- 
prise, we ought to do so, even though we may not see 
all the good that will result from it ; and, likewise, if we 
perceive its beneficial consequences, we ought immedi- 
ately to turn our whole attention to it, even though, in 
our peculiar position, we may not suppose that it is a 
duty binding on us. If these two great principles were 
united, how powerful would they be ! Now, my breth- 
ren, on both of these we would rest our arguments. 
They afford us plenty of weapons ; we shall select but a 
few of the first that come to our hands. 

And in the first place, since duty is concerned, con- 
sider yourselves in the character of Christians, and see 
what your duty is toward Christ. " If any provide not 
for his own," says our text, " and especially for those 
of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse 
than an infidel." Yes, my brethren, if you have faith 
in Jesus Christ, you should take advantage of the op- 
portunities you have to teach the truth and impart con- 
solation in your own households. If you deprive others 
of the benefit of that faith, you become guilty with re- 
gard to it ; you betray Jesus Christ. 

What ! when you know that the path in which men 
are walking leads to death, that " they have all gone 
out of the way, that there is none that seeketh after God, 
and that they have not known the way of peace ;" # that, 
if you had remained in that path, you would have drawn 
down upon yourself God's just condemnation — for this 
* Rom.,iii., 11, 12, 17, 



DUTIES OF MASTERS TO THEIR HOUSEHOLDS. 87 

is your belief — when, I say, you know all this, can you 
live without doing something for those who dwell under 
your roof? Will you not endeavor to free them from 
the bondage of death, from the darkness of iniquity, of 
which you yourself have seen the fearful consequences ? 
Ah ! if you act thus, you will " deny the faith, and be 
worse than an infidel.' , 

What ! when you know that Christ is " the Way, the 
Truth, and the Life/'* that He is " the Door,"f that " no 
man cometh unto the Father but by Him,"J that " by 
Him if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall 
go in and out, and shall find pasture ;"§ when, I say, 
you know this — for this is your belief — can you live 
without directing those of your household who are wan- 
dering like " sheep without a shepherd,"|| to that Way 
and that Door ? Ah ! if you can act thus, you have 
indeed forsaken that way yourself; you have re- 
nounced Jesus Christ ; you have " denied the faith, and 
are worse than an infidel." 

What ! when you know that " there is no distinction 
of persons," that God has called all men to obtain sal- 
vation through Jesus Christ, " both bond and free,"^[ as 
St. Paul says ; that " Christ hath reconciled both unto 
God in one body ;"** when you know this, I say — for 
this is your belief — can you still live without instructing 
your servants respecting those privileges which the 
Christian belief has offered them ? can you withhold 
from them their portion of eternal life ? Ah ! if so, you 
have renounced Jesus Christ ; you have " denied the 
faith, and are worse than an infidel." 

But if your duty toward Christ obliges you to take 
care of those who belong to your household, your duty 
toward your brethren, in general, lays you under obliga- 

* John., xiv., 6. f Ibid., x., 9. $ Ibid., xiv., 6. $ Ibid., x., 9. 

|| Matt., ix., 36. U" Gal., iii., 28. ** Eph., ii., 16. 



88 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

tions no less sacred. Do you not owe them an active 
manifestation of your love ? Oh ! it is sad to view the 
neglect which prevails in this respect ; a fatal but natu- 
ral consequence of the absence of faith. 

Perhaps you say, " We are not idle ; we have often 
given alms to the poor." But how is it, then, we reply, 
that in your charity you forget those who are nearest 
to you ; and to whom do you owe more peculiar proofs 
of your fraternal love than to those whom God has 
placed under the same roof as yourselves 1 Perhaps, 
desiring to justify yourselves in another way, you say, 
" It is true that we are neglectful of the performance of 
good works, but really it is because we have no oppor- 
tunities." Ah ! we reply, in the words of an enlighten- 
ed divine,* " Were you unable to do any thing beyond 
your domestic sphere, you might still, beneath your own 
roof, have your hands full of good works. Tell me, O 
man ! who are the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the 
prisoners, the strangers, or the sick, but those of thine 
own family? God, when He gave thee thy house, made 
it a hospital^ and appointed thee a steward over it." 

Perhaps you say, "We have not forgotten our ser- 
vants ; and when we have had any thing to give away, 
we have preferred giving it to them rather than to others." 
What gifts do you allude to ? An article of clothing, 
or a piece of gold ? Have - you nothing better to give 
them ? Are not their souls naked, and do they not need 
the robe of righteousness ? Could you not give them 
some of that pure gold which you derive from the Gos- 
pel ?f Of what use is it, my brethren, that Christian 
faith exists in your dwelling, if Christian works are not 
performed there ? Where there are no works, faith is 
but a dream and a delusion. 

And if such be your duty toward the Savior and 

* Luther, t Rev,, iii,, 18, 



DUTIES OF MASTERS TO THEIR HOUSEHOLDS. 89 

toward your brethren, what is your duty toward God 
your heavenly Father in Jesus Christ ? Our great 
duty toward God is, to become like Him, "to be perfect, 
even as our Father in heaven is perfect."* In vain do 
we seek to please Him by other means, if we do not 
please Him in this respect. To be like-minded with 
Him, and to do what He does, is our rule. Now, how 
does God, who is our Master, act toward us, His ser- 
vants ? What care He takes of us ! How His Prov- 
idence extends to the most minute details ! How con- 
tinually does He act ! Then do for your servants what 
God does for you. Especially let your desire to imi- 
tate God prevent you from forgetting the one thing 
needful. Does your Master, who is Lord of heaven and 
earth, and in whose house you are living, give you noth- 
ing but meat and drink? If nature works great mira- 
cles for the nourishment of your body, has not grace 
performed still greater miracles for your spiritual nour- 
ishment, and does it not still perform them ? Hath not 
God given you Christ for your wisdom and your right- 
eousness ? Ought you not to spread blessings around 
you, as He spreads them over the whole world? and 
ought you not to act in your limited sphere as He acts 
in His universe ? " Masters ! know that ye also have 
a Master in heaven ;"f Him must you imitate. 

Thus, my brethren, the remembrance of our duty 
suggests important considerations. But this is not 
enough ; we would also draw them from another source, 
and would lay before you some reflections in reference 
to usefulness. 

And, first, observe how much good will result from 
the care given to those who belong to your household, 
for yourselves, for your own sanctification and happi- 
ness. It is in our own household that the Evil One lays 

* Matt., v., 48. t 1 Col., iv., 1. 

H2 



90 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

the most dangerous snares. Perhaps it is not very dif- 
ficult to appear to be a servant of Jesus Christ in public, 
and to seem very zealous for His cause and the advance- 
ment of His kingdom. But to be truly a servant of 
Jesus Christ in the retirement of the family, at all hours 
of the day, and among those in whose company life is 
to be spent — this, indeed, is difficult. And yet this must 
be done, if your piety is sincere. If you neglect those 
who belong to your household, you will neglect your- 
self; but if, on the contrary, you devote all your efforts 
to them, it will be a powerful aid to your own perfec- 
tion. And how can you lead a truly Christian life if 
there is no harmony on matters of faith in your home ? 
How can that family be truly Christian where the ser- 
vants are dissipated and slanderous, or even where 
their religious belief is at variance with that of their 
masters ? There are a thousand things to disturb devo- 
tion and piety. Christian life requires harmony. If 
you and your servants are animated with the same 
spirit, they assist you in your progress in the path of 
sanctification instead of impeding you ; a spirit of life 
pervades your whole family, unites its various members, 
and the way of salvation becomes easy. " Let the 
servants, too, be taught the word of God," says a fa- 
ther of the Church ; " we shall find the practice of vir- 
tue easier if we have brought them up in it ; as the 
pilot steers his vessel with greater facility if his sailors 
assist him."* And how often have the prayers of the 
faithful servant risen, a sweet savor, to the throne of 
God ! How many servants, like Elisha's, have been 
instruments in assisting some widow of Shunem !f 
How many masters have received from those who wait 
upon them, not merely the food which perisheth, but 
also the Bread of Eternal Life ! 

* Chrysostom. t 2 Kings, iv. 



DUTIES OF MASTERS TO THEIR HOUSEHOLDS. 91 

But do you not perceive what good would result 
from your efforts to your servants themselves? The 
knowledge of God is assuredly an invaluable treasure 
to all men. But does it not possess peculiar advantages 
for those who are called to wait upon others? They 
are under the command of a human master ; and oh, 
how delightful would it be for them to find the great 
Master, who will never make them feel that His do- 
minion is a wearisome one, who is " lowly in heart," 
whose " yoke is easy, and whose burden is light,"* and 
who can make up for all the exactions and caprices of 
others ! They are not free ; another commands them ; 
and how precious would they find that true freedom, 
which can be acquired through faith in Jesus Christ, 
even by those who are in a state of servitude, the free- 
dom which delivers from sin ; for " they shall be free 
indeed whom the Son makes free."f They are called 
at all times to sacrifice their will to the will of others ; 
how desirable, then, that they should possess that knowl- 
edge of God which destroys self-will, which leads to the 
renunciation of self-interest, and which induces one to 
exclaim, with joy and resignation, whatever may hap- 
pen, " Lord, Thy will be done !" You see, then, what 
precious advantages the Truth offers to your servants ; 
it would almost seem as though Christianity were made 
for them alone. And would you refuse them that 
which God has designed for them ? 

Perhaps you fear lest the attention given to your ser- 
vants might prevent your taking the necessary care of 
your children. But, on the contrary, it is not possible 
for you to bring up your children properly unless you 
also rightly train your servants ; and your family will 
derive the greatest benefit from your exertions in their 
behalf. How can your children be brought to the 

* Matt., xi., 30. t John, viii., 36, 



92 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

knowledge of the Truth, and be led into the right path, 
unless moral order and discipline exist in your family, 
and unless the influences of Christianity surround them? 
If your servants themselves do not obey the precepts 
of the Gospel, they will ever be destroying the work 
of your hands. Their language, their actions, and their 
habits will be more forcibly impressed upon the minds 
of your children than all your instructions, and even 
than your example. The natural corruption of the 
heart of man leads him readily to receive bad impres- 
sions, and the enemy of our souls has particular designs 
upon the souls of children. O, how many have been 
ruined by the suggestions and examples of servants ! 

But if, on the contrary, your servants fear the Lord, 
how useful will they be to the younger members of your 
family ! Be assured that they will be the best of teach- 
ers ; they may, perhaps, have even more influence than 
yourselves. Thus, in the name of the interests most 
dear to your heart, we call upon you to fulfill the great 
duty which God's word lays upon you. 

But what is this duty 1 We will tell you. 



DIRECTIONS. 

We must now, my brethren, give you rules for your 
conduct in future. This is a difficult task ; but we 
shall, at least, endeavor to suggest a few directions, 
which we will place under three heads, and will say to 
you, If you wish to perform your duty to those who 
belong to your household, be their equals, their masters, 
and their servants. 

O, masters ! be the equals of your servants ! This 
is the first thing required of you. Of this be well as- 
sured : you and your servants are equal in the sight of 



DUTIES OF MASTERS TO THEIR HOUSEHOLDS. 93 

God ; and in His book the same leaf upon which your 
name is inscribed contains theirs also. Let them be 
members of your family ; let them be the companions 
of your life ; let not the servants be a distinct class in 
each household, but let masters and servants be closely 
united. Paul, when he sent Onesimus back to his mas- 
ter Philemon, said to him, " Receive him not now as a 
servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, espe- 
cially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the 
flesh, and in the Lord ? ,,# In the eye of God there are 
no masters or servants. Christianity has done away 
with all those superstitious ideas according to which men 
believed that one class of human beings was of greater 
value than another. Christianity is the great law of 
perfect and universal equality. " In Christ there is nei- 
ther bond nor free."j- Christianity teaches us that there 
is but one real inferiority, but one real state of bondage, 
namely, a state of sin. " I call the servant a master, 
even though he wear chains, if I see in him the evidence 
of a noble mind ; and, in my opinion, the man who is 
invested with the highest authority is but an insignifi- 
cant being, if he has a servile soul. How many masters 
are lying drunken upon their beds, while those who 
wait upon them are erect and sober ! Is there any 
other slave than the servant of sin ?"J Christianity has 
abolished slavery, my brethren. Thanks to the law 
of liberty, one source of shame for man has been closed. 
But of what avail is it that slavery should have been 
abolished in name, if it still exists in fact? Do you 
suppose that the humiliating state of dependence, the 
marked distinction, the spirit of servility in which infe- 
riors are held in so many families styled Christian, do 
not constitute real slavery ? Ah ! how many slaves, in 
by-gone days, were more generously treated than many 

* Philemon, 16. f Gal., iii., 28. J Chrysostom. 



94 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

servants are in our day ! And by what right does one 
portion of the human race so lightly esteem another 
portion ? The class of servants is, in reality, one of the 
most honorable of classes. What other has such fre- 
quent opportunities of displaying that noblest of quali- 
ties, forgetfulness of self? Christianity has infinitely 
improved the condition of servants by telling them that 
they do not serve men merely, but the Lord;* and, by 
being frequently reminded of this servitude, they are 
perhaps brought nearer than any others to the glory of 
the saints and angels, which consists in serving God. 
If you make your servants feel the inferiority of their 
condition, it will be out of your power to do them any 
good ; but if, impressed with the great law of equality, 
you treat them with that affection which the Gospel re- 
quires, as brethren, as children, and as friends, their 
hearts will be already gained over to the influence of 
the law that annuls the sentence of servitude which the 
world has passed. The low habits and servile ideas 
which they may still retain will gradually become less 
common. Noble ideas will find access to their minds. 
Their duties will still be the same, but they will be ful- 
filled from higher and weightier motives ; and, when 
they appreciate their own worth, they will be more 
anxious for themselves and their eternal welfare. Their 
souls will be better prepared to receive true Christiani- 
ty, that supreme law of deliverance. They will no 
longer regard religion, as some do, as a yoke to which 
others wish to subject them, but as a friend that would 
save them. They will be made a part of Christian so- 
ciety. Do not say that the condition of your servants 
is so far below such a state that you can not think of 
making any efforts of the kind ; for what occasions their 
present condition but the course which you have hith- 

* Col., iii., 23. 



DUTIES OF MASTERS TO THEIR HOUSEHOLDS. 95 

erto pursued ? And if you alter it, what proof have 
you that the amelioration of which we speak will not 
take place? 

But it is not sufficient that you should become the 
equals of your servants; you must also be their real 
masters. God forbid that we should even suggest the idea 
of that equality of condition which is the prolific source 
of disorder. While we remind you that you are their 
equals before the throne of Him who casts down and 
levels all greatness, you must also act as those who 
have been allotted to them as masters and superiors in 
the present dispensation. But whereby are they to dis- 
cern the superiority you possess ? Shall it be only by 
your commands? Shall it not rather be by the tender so- 
licitude that you will show for their real prosperity, and 
by the kindness that they will receive from you ? The 
peculiar mark of a superior is, that he gives away, not 
that others give to him. Why should a man be placed 
above others, if not that he may do them the more good ? 
Does not a large tree give much shade ? When God 
appoints a king over a people, is it that he may deprive 
his subjects of the fruit of their labor, and enjoy it him- 
self? Is it merely that he may command them, and 
dispose of their possessions? Is it not, rather, that he 
may consecrate them to the good of those who are un- 
der his care ? And do you suppose that God has placed 
you above your servants for any other cause than this? 
Do not say that the case is different, and that your ser- 
vants are under greater obligations to you than subjects 
are to their monarchs ; for, if so, it would follow that 
you yourselves are under still greater obligations to 
them. Be then their superiors, their heads, their mas- 
ters ; that is, exert your authority for the good of those 
who obey you. In the eye of God, you renounce that 
character as soon as you cease to make a proper use of 



96 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

it. Do not let difficulties discourage you, even if they 
proceed from those who are the objects of your efforts. 
Exert the power intrusted to you. 

Bat you wish to know more particularly what you 
have to do as masters ; we shall therefore give you a 
few directions on this point. First, then, practice a wise 
superintendence over your household. " The eyes of 
the Lord are upon the ways of man, and He seeth all 
his goings ;"* and let your eyes also be every where ; 
not with that restless look which pries into every thing, 
but with that look of love which would fain assist, direct, 
and reprove ; with the look of a mother following the 
motions of her child, that she may hasten to it should it 
fall ; so that not the slightest disturbance may escape 
your observation and correction. If your servants sup- 
pose that you do not care for them, then sin will have 
greater power over them, for the master's look is a sec- 
ond conscience for the servant. But if you watch over 
them, you will find that the eye of the righteous man 
bringeth righteousness. 

And permit me, my brethren, to direct your attention 
as masters to a point of importance in this city : I allude 
to simplicity in dress. The apostle commands that 
women should "adorn themselves in modest apparel, 
not with costly array."f And how can a Christian 
woman allow even her servants to neglect the apostle's- 
command ? Is it not too often the case that, far from 
preventing such conduct, the vanity of masters is grati- 
fied by the excessive love of finery of their servants ? 
Christian hearers, adopt some principle or other on this 
subject. The example you set will be imitated by oth- 
ers. How many young people might I mention who 
in their childhood received pious impressions, who learn- 
ed to respect the word of God, and in whose hearts that 

* Job, xxxiv., 21. t 1 Tim., ii., 9. 



DUTIES OF MASTERS TO THEIR HOUSEHOLDS. 97 

word had borne some fruits of sanctification and right- 
eousness, but who, having come to one of our large cit- 
ies, by degrees lost that portion of true riches which, had 
it been properly used, might have been increased. The 
love of dress is the destructive temptation by means of 
which the Evil One attacks them. One has not always 
the necessary means of satisfying it— and hence so much 
wickedness ! An establishment is now being founded 
in this city, by means of which, if instruction in the word 
of God and assiduous labor are made the instruments of 
correction, many wanderers may be led back from the 
path of perdition. May God bless this work ! And I 
can not take leave of this subject without observing that 
the interest which is taken in establishments of this kind, 
the object of which is to alleviate the misery of mankind, 
is a work most acceptable to God. Would that I could 
see that spirit of usefulness developed among you which 
animates Christians in other lands, and which must nec- 
essarily exist wherever the Gospel of our Lord Jesus 
Christ is preached ! But, my brethren, while we admire 
such institutions, designed to repair the evil, do you not 
think it quite as important to endeavor to prevent its 
occurrence? And you will succeed in doing this by 
striving to eradicate the love of dress from the hearts 
of your servants, and by preserving simplicity among 
them. Thus you will prevent their falling into that snare 
of Satan of which the Scriptures speak. 

But let your watchfulness as masters extend still far- 
ther: see that your servants perform their religious du- 
ties faithfully. You are very sensitive when they forget 
the duties which they owe to you ; and can you be less 
sensitive when they forget those which they owe to God? 
Is it not your highest duty, as masters, to induce your 
servants to worship the greatest of Masters ? And how 
often have you hindered them from so doing ! How 

I 



9S DISCOURSES- ANB ESSAYS* 

often have they been prevented on the Lord's day from 
going to the house where His holy word is expounded I 
Persuade them rather to attend divine worship with reg- 
ularity, and on proper occasions to receive the sacra- 
ment of the Lord's Supper. Let them not forget God 
in your houses. One of the most effectual and power- 
ful causes of vice is found in the moments of idleness-, 
when servants have nothing to do but to converse about 
their masters, or on other subjects, or to read books in- 
jurious to the cause of religion and morality. Could you 
not take away those books, and substitute others for 
them which breathe the pure spirit of the religion of Je- 
sus Christ? Especially, could you not give them the 
word of God ? Your servants might, by assembling 
together in the evening to read it, grow in temperance, 
righteousness, and piety. This is an easier thing than 
many suppose, and it has often been done. 

Finally, my brethren, you should not only be equals 
and masters, but you ought also^to be servants. If you 
are true servants of Jesus Christ, you should also be 
servants of all men, even of your own servants, for the 
sake of Jesus Christ. They serve your bodies, and you 
ought to serve their souls. " Whosoever will be great 
among you, let him be your minister,"* says Jesus. Like 
those pious heralds of the Gospel who became slaves 
themselves among slaves, that they might make them 
free indeed, so ought you spiritually to do, becoming 
the servants of your servants, that you may brin^ them 
captive to your Master, Since the Son of God became 
a servant to save us, shall not we become such our- 
selves, that we may save our brethren ? No man can 
accomplish the salvation of men by any other means 
than by making himself of no reputation, as He did.f 
And do not suppose that you must degrade yourselves 
* Matt., xx,, 26. f Phil., ii,, 7, 8. 



DUTIES OF MASTERS TO THEIR HOUSEHOLDS. 99 

for this purpose ; you can be servants, and yet remain 
in the same position which you now occupy. Christ, 
although the servant of us all, has ever remained our 
superior. Become, therefore, the servants of your ser- 
vants for the sake of their salvation. Do this through 
charity. This sacred service is in reality nothing but 
charity. The man within whose heart this Christian 
virtue exists, is made the servant of all men by it. Love 
is the true strength of the Christian ; by it he conquers 
the most rebellious souls. Thus, let there be no threat- 
ening, no bitterness, no capriciousness ; let your conduct 
toward those of your household be full of patience, gen- 
tleness, and faithfulness ; they will ask themselves what 
causes this ; and they will find an answer in the Gospel 
of Jesus Christ. They will submit to that law of love 
which they will learn to know by your example. 

Become servants in your example. Let them see 
that you have resolved to live for Him who once died 
for you.* How many slaves, in the primitive times of 
Christianity, became converted when they saw that of- 
ferings were no longer placed upon the altars of false 
gods in their masters' houses, but that Christ the Lord 
was worshiped ! Likewise, let your servants see that in 
your houses those false gods of the world, which are 
named wealth, pleasure, vain-glory, and pride, are no 
longer worshiped, but that, with things in heaven, and 
things in earth, you bow the knee at the name of Jesus, 
who is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.f Then, 
" turning to God from idols, they will serve the living 
and true God, and wait for His Son from heaven, whom 
He raised from the dead, even Jesus."J 

Such are the duties, perhaps unknown before to some, 
which we call upon you to fulfill. Masters, henceforth 
remember the work which God has given you to do ! 

* 2 Cor., v., 15. f Phil., ii., 10, 11. t 1 Thess., i., 9, 10. 



100 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

Do not look around you to see whether others guide 
their vessels rightly, but seize your own helms. If 
such efforts were made more and more by all masters, 
we might soon look for an amelioration in the condition 
of the lower classes of society. But, you say, servants 
constitute but a very small portion of society. How, 
then, can we hope for such extensive consequences 
from efforts like these? Ah! my brethren, who can 
tell what good to all classes would result, if those who 
serve in our houses were brought up in the fear of God ! 
In how many relations do they stand to others ! A 
handmaid who becomes a wife and a mother will be 
accompanied in her own house by that piety in which 
she shall have been educated in the houses of her mas- 
ters. The service of the rich will then be a school of 
virtue, not of vice ; and from their dwellings, as from a 
precious nursery, will come forth sound and robust 
trees, which will soon give delightful shade in some 
other place. And to you, Christian women, to you, to 
whom the government of the household particularly be- 
longs ; to you, Marthas,* who are not called to serve the 
Lord in person, but in the persons of your servants, to 
you more especially we speak, in closing this discourse. 
Every man here below has a peculiar vocation. One 
is a magistrate, another a minister of the word, a third 
is engaged in his own affairs. And have you no call- 
ing ? Assuredly you have. Do not neglect it ; do not 
think yourselves forgotten in the universal distribution 
of labor. The peculiar vocation which you have re- 
ceived from God, is the care of your homes and of those 
who dwell there. This is your ministry. How great is 
the influence of a Christian woman over servants who 
love and respect her ! It is greater than that of any 
preacher. Oh, may they then revive that salutary in- 

* Luke, x., 40. 



DUTIES OF MASTERS TO THEIR HOUSEHOLDS. 101 

fluence which was exerted in brighter days of the 
Church ! Let them live for their households, and no 
longer for the world ! 

My brethren, whatever may be your rank or your 
wealth, remember that all other things are of very little 
consequence compared with the opportunities which 
they may give you of doing good to the souls of your 
servants. May God assist you to profit by those op- 
portunities ! Amen. 

12 



102 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 



VI. THE WORK OF SALVATION. 

A HOMILY. 

" Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good 
work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." — Phil, i., 6. 

It was to the Church at Philippi, a city in Macedo- 
nia, celebrated for the battles which were fought there 
by the Romans during their civil wars, that the Epistle 
from which our text is taken was addressed. We 
learn from the sixteenth chapter of the Acts of the 
Apostles how this Church was founded by St. Paul. 
The apostle was in Asia. Europe had not yet received 
the light of the Gospel. A man of Macedonia, the rep- 
resentative of many nations and ages, appeared in a 
vision to the apostle of the Gentiles, according to the 
account given by his fellow-traveller St. Luke, and 
prayed him, saying, " Come over into Macedonia, and 
help us!" Come over and help us! These are re- 
markable words, which Europe then addressed to Asia, 
and which Asia now addresses to us in return. The 
apostle, concluding that the Lord called him, did not 
hesitate : he left Troas, and soon arrived at Philippi, 
and was the first herald of the Gospel of peace that set 
his foot upon our continent. But he was not idle ; he 
left the city, went to the river- side, where prayer was 
wont to be made, and proclaimed the news of which 
he was the bearer. His labors were not in vain. St. 
Luke mentions several remarkable cases of conversion, 
particularly that of a certain woman named Lydia, a 
seller of purple, who heard the apostles, and " whose 
heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things 
which were spoken of Paul ;" and the still more re- 
markable conversion of the keeper of the prison into 



THE WORK OF SALVATION. 103 

which Paul and -Silas had been thrown. At midnight 
an earthquake shook the foundations of the prison ; and 
that man, who at first would have killed himself, sup- 
posing that the prisoners had been fled, being held back 
by the voice of Paul, threw himself at the feet of the 
apostle and of Silas, exclaiming, " Sirs, what must I do 
to be saved?" "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ," 
was the answer of the men of God, ** and thou shalt be 
saved, and thy house." Then they announced to him 
the word of the Lord ; and soon, with his whole house, 
he rejoiced, believing in God. 

But before long St. Paul left Philippi ; ten years of 
his life of labor and suffering passed away ; he was now 
a prisoner at Rome. The Christian community at 
Philippi, which still regarded the apostle with tender 
affection, and deeply sympathized with him in his trials, 
and having learned what his situation was, had sent 
him assistance. Desirous of knowing his condition, 
they had sent one of their brethren, named Epaphrodi- 
tus, to Rome, where he fell dangerously ill ; neverthe- 
less, God had mercy on him,* and the apostle resolved, 
on his restoration to health, to send him back to his be- 
loved flock with the letter from which our text is taken. 
Paul remained in bondage, and deprived of the compa- 
ny of his friend. Nevertheless, he rejoiced at the re- 
membrance of the believers at Philippi; and the first 
words of the letter which Epaphroditus carried to them 
inform us of the cause of this joy. " Paul and Timo- 
theus," he writes, " the servants of Jesus Christ, to all 
the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, w T ith 
the bishops and deacons: Grace be unto you, and peace, 
from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, al- 
ways in every prayer of mine for you all making re- 
-* Phil., ii.« 



104 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

quest with joy, for your fellowship in the Gospel from 
the first day until now ; being confident of this very 
thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you, 
will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." 

Let us examine more closely, my brethren, this work 
which gave the apostle so much pleasure ; it must be 
well worthy of our attention. We do not wish to pre- 
sent considerations more or less general, at this time, 
but simply to explain to you each word which St. Paul 
here uses. By going thus to the fountain-head, we 
shall have more reason to expect that your minds will 
submit to the Truth. There are seven words in our 
text which need to be explained, and which shall suc- 
cessively engage our attention. 

I. The work referred to : a work, says the apostle, 

II. The scene of its fulfillment : in you. 

III. The quality attributed to it : a good work. 

IV. The author assigned : He which hath begun. 

V. The apostle's opinion respecting this work : He 
will perform it. 

VI. The certainty of this achievement : being confi- 
dent. 

And, VII. The period in which this achievement will 
take place : until the day of Jesus Christ. 

When we shall have explained these seven portions 
of our text, we shall have faithfully performed the du- 
ties of the servant of the word of God. May God our 
Father, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord, grant His 
Holy Spirit : unto me, that I may explain his oracles 
according to the analogy of faith ; and unto you, that 
you may understand them ! Amen. 



I. And first, my brethren, this subject relates to a 
work which was performed among the Philippians* 



THE WORK OF SALVATION. 105 

This work is variously designated in the Scriptures. 
Sometimes it is called repentance ; at others, conversion; 
at others, regeneration; at others, again, new birth; 
and sometimes, even, sanctification. But, whatever 
name it may bear, it is a work of the highest importance 
to every man. For this work men ought most sincerely 
to bless the mercy of the Father of every good gift, when 
they know and acknowledge that it has been accom- 
plished. It is the thing most to be desired ; even when 
the want of it is known and acknowledged. It is the 
great work which God requires of man. It is this that 
John the Baptist, the forerunner of the new covenant, 
required, when he began his ministry, by crying in the 
wilderness of Judea, " Repent ye ; for the kingdom of 
heaven is at hand." It is this that Jesus Christ, the Head 
of the Church, required, when He likewise began His 
ministry, and said, as He walked by the shore of the 
Sea of Galilee, " The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom 
of God is at hand : repent ye, and believe the Gospel." 
It is this that the apostles, Christ's ambassadors, re- 
quired, when they, too, began their ministry, replying to 
the multitude at Jerusalem, who exclaimed, "What shall 
we do ?" " Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, 
in the name of Jesus Christ." It is this that the suc- 
cessors of the first preachers of the Gospel have always 
required in all ages. Christianity would be destroyed 
on earth, were the lips of the servants of God to become 
silent on this point. To proclaim this requirement is 
the duty of the Church. And, consequently, it is still 
the great appeal which ministers of the word ought to 
address, and do continually address, with perfect free- 
dom, to all men of every nation and language. 

But what is this work ? What is its history ? What 
are the successive deeds which constitute it? The 
paths which lead to it are various, but the work is al- 



106 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

ways the same. It was performed in the heart of Lydia, 
in that of the jailer, and in the hearts of all their breth- 
ren and sisters in Jesus Christ. Let us see wherein it 
consisted when performed in them ; we may thus learn 
wherein it consists when wrought in us. 

In the first place, the Philippians, to whom St. Paul 
preached the Gospel, were convinced of the wickedness 
of their own hearts and the evil course of their lives. 
They saw that there was not a single law written upon 
their consciences which they had not broken in some 
way or other, and that, consequently, they deserved con- 
demnation. These sentiments we see strongly devel- 
oped in the mind of the jailer ; his slumbering con- 
science is awakened at the sight of the miracle per- 
formed in favor of the apostles • oppressed by the re- 
membrance of his sins, he feels that he is lost ; he casts 
himself at the feet of Paul and Silas, exclaiming," What 
must I do to be saved ?" Such should be the com- 
mencement of the work of which I am speaking within 
us. 

But, secondly, this work consisted, among the Philip- 
pians, in their being brought to a knowledge of the sal- 
vation of which Jesus Christ is the author. St. Paul 
had preached to them " the word of the Lord ;" # he had 
told them how the Son of God had become man, how 
He had lived thirty-three years on earth, in the land of 
Judea, that He might reconcile men unto God ; how He 
had undergone great sufferings ; how He had been 
nailed to the Cross, and had died on it, and that for all 
men, that their sins might not be imputed unto them by 
their Judge, and that they might obtain eternal life. 
" Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ," said Paul. All 
these disciples had believed that these things had really 
happened, and that they had happened for their salva- 

* Acts, xvi., 32. 



THE WORK OF SALVATION. 107 

tion, as the apostle told them. They had appropriated 
to their own souls the forgiveness of sins of which the 
Cross made all men worthy, and considered it as a gift 
to them. This, too, my brethren, is the faith which the 
Gospel requires us to have. As we so often receive 
gifts from men, we ought to receive this Gift of God, 
which is eternal life* which no man deserves, and which 
no man can obtain by his own efforts, but which Eter- 
nal Love has designed, in mercy, to give freely to ev- 
ery humble soul that comes and asks for it with faith, 
and in the name of Jesus Christ. 

In the third place, this faith in Jesus Christ changed 
the hearts and the lives of the inhabitants of Philippi ; it 
made them new men. From that time they began to 
walk in the footsteps of their Savior. This change was 
peculiarly evident in the jailer. That man, who, but a 
few hours before, had made fast the feet of the apos- 
tles in the stocks, now, filled with love, washed their 
stripes. That man, who, but a few moments before, 
was in deep despair, and would fain have killed himself, 
was now the happiest of men ; he rejoiced, we are told. 
Such, too, should be the third and last effect of this work 
within us. A total change of heart and life is the seal- 
ing act. Such is the work of which the apostle speaks. 

II. But where ought it to be performed ? In you, 
replies St. Paul. This is the second portion of our text, 
which we must explain. The prophet Ezekiel had al- 
ready foreseen that the work which Christianity was to 
accomplish would be performed in the heart of man, 
and of this he informed his contemporaries, in these 
words : " A new heart also will I give you (saith the 
Lord), and a new spirit will I put within you ; and I 
will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I 
* 1 John, v., 11. Eph.,ii.,-8,». 



108 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

will give you a heart of flesh."* Our Lord told this to 
Nicodemus, saying to him, " Verily, verily, I say unto 
thee, Except a man be born again, he can not see the 
kingdom of God."+ And the apostles declared unto all 
men that " in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth 
any thing, nor uneircumeision, but a new creature."J 
Thus we have the unanimous testimony of our Lord, of 
those who preceded Him, and of those who followed 
Him, on this point. 

There are many works performed in the universe ; 
many are performed in heaven and on earth, in the 
east and the west, in our houses and out of doors ; but 
it is not in any of these places that the work of which 
the apostle speaks must be performed ; a very different 
place is assigned for it ; it must be performed, he says, 
in you. 

Yes, my brethren, it is in you, within your soul and 
spirit, that Christianity must perform its work ; it is 
satisfied with nothing else. The sects of philosophers 
sought only to reach the understanding ; false religions 
merely regulated external habits. But Christianity goes 
farther. It must take possession of your inmost heart ; 
to make all things new in you, says the apostle. 

This good work must be performed in you. The 
Scriptures speak particularly of two works. One was 
performed without us; the other must be performed with- 
in us. The first is the work of our Redemption, which 
was performed by Jesus Christ, when He reconciled 
us to God His Father on the Cross. This is the work 
which all the patriarchs and prophets foresaw, and re- 
joiced to see. By means of this work the good tidings 
of pardon can be and are proclaimed to every creature. 
This is the work which reconciled heaven and earth, 
and which, laying the foundation of a new order of 
* Ezek., xxxvi., 26. t John, iii., 3. $ Gal., vi., 15. 



THE WORK OF SALVATION. 109 

things, will forever fill the universe with joy. But we 
can not profit by it so long as the work within us has 
not taken place. It was not for us that Jesus Christ 
came into the world and suffered on the cross, if repent- 
ance, faith, and sanctification have not performed their 
work upon our hearts. In that case, the death of the 
Son of God is to us a useless event in history. We are 
blind men, who, in the brightest day, are neither en- 
lightened nor gladdened by a single ray of light. 

This good work must be performed in you. The 
apostle uses these words in order to take away all false 
confidence. Observe : it were vain for you to be 
Christians in outward appearance, to have been bap- 
tized in the Christian Church, to have been taught the 
great truths of religion, to have partaken frequently of 
the Holy Supper of our Lord ; it were vain for you to 
have avoided, like the Pharisee, being extortioners, un- 
just, or adulterers, unless the knowledge of Jesus Christ 
has exerted its omnipotent influence in you ; unless it 
has made you acknowledge your misery, forsake sin 
and the world, and become truly converted unto God. 
All these external things are unmeaning, and the essen- 
tial work of Christianity is wanting: it has not been 
performed in you. It were vain for you to be perfectly 
conversant with the system of the Gospel, and to be 
able to reason with facility respecting all the truths 
which it contains ; it were vain for you to say with 
your lips, Lord! Lord! unless the work of regeneration 
through faith in Jesus Christ has been performed within 
your hearts ; unless you daily present your bodies and 
your souls a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God;* 
all the rest is nothing but show and hypocrisy. " The 
kingdom of God is not in word, but in power ;"f you 
must begin the whole work anew. 

* Rom., xii., L f 1 Cor., iv., 20. 

& 



110 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

III. But what is the characteristic of this work? 
The apostle calls it a good work. And who will not ex- 
claim with him, this is a good work? 

It is good, for it has ended the darkness in which we 
were lying. Oh, how many things we were ignorant 
of which we know now ! We were wanderers in the 
world, uncertain as to whence we came, or whither we 
were going. But now all our ways have been made 
manifest ; and the knowledge we have acquired fills us 
with joy. We did not know ourselves; but now we 
have learned our present misery, as well as our former 
greatness. We did not know God, and considered Him 
as possessing only a certain degree of power ; but now 
we see such holiness in His character as we never con- 
ceived of before, such mercy as we could not imagine. 
Our ideas of a future state were indefinite, and did not 
satisfy our desires ; but now the eyes of our under- 
standing are enlightened, that we may know " the 
greatness" of the hope of our calling.* Yes, it is a good 
work, by which we have been called out of darkness 
into marvelous light !f 

This is a good work, for it puts an end to the es- 
trangement from God in which we were living. As 
we were living without any knowledge of God, we 
were also living without communion with Him. We 
did not find it pleasant to raise our thoughts to Him, to 
read His word, or to do His will. But now, thanks be 
unto Him, the middle wall of partition hath been broken 
down ;J He hath translated us into His kingdom ;§ He 
hath given us the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry 
Abba, Father.H We are His friends.^" His children.** 
"I have rejoiced in the way of Thy testimonies, as 
much as in all riches."f f Oh, it is a good work that 

* Eph., i., 18, 19. | 1 Pet., ii., 9. J Eph., ii., 14. t) Col., i., 13. 
I! Rom., viii., 15. IT John, xv., 14. ** Gal., iv., 5. ft P«- cxix., 14. 



THE WORK OF SALVATION. Ill 

calls us back from the exile in which we were 
living. 

This is a good work, for it puts an end to the domin- 
ion of sin. There were certain inclinations and favor- 
ite vices which we could not resist. When we rose 
above them, it was but to fall again. Oh ! how many 
groans ! how many struggles ! Miserable beings that 
we were, what we would, that did we not ; but what 
we hated, that did we.* But we thank God, through 
Jesus Christ our Lord, that we have been delivered 
from the body of this death. f God Himself undertook 
what we could not do. "Being made free from sin, 
we became the servants of righteousness.";]; Does not 
this work, which drew us out of such misery, deserve 
to be called good? 

But its goodness is peculiarly apparent in the fact 
that it has made us participators in the remission of 
sins. The burden of our transgressions has been cast 
under our feet. All our sins have been thrown into 
the depths of the sea.§ We know this, and we repeat 
these words, in which we shall ever rejoice : " There 
is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ 
Jesus."[| God will no longer hold us guilty. We need 
not fear punishment from the hand of the judge now, 
but we await the boundless riches of the Father. Oh, 
admirable work ! the more we know thee, the more we 
love thee ! 

IV. But who is the author of it ? Who hath begun 
this good work in us ? The apostle gives us an answer, 
and that answer is the fourth part of our text, which we 
shall consider. He, says St. Paul, which hath begun a 
good work in you, 

* Rom., vii., 15. t Ibid., vii.,24, 25. t Ibid., vi., 18. 

$ Micah, vii., 19. || Rom., viii., 1, 



112 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

It is God who begins this good work of man's con- 
version. St. Paul declares this, and our Lord Himself 
says, " No man can come to me, except the Father 
which hath sent me draw him." " Every man, there- 
fore, that hath heard and hath learned of the Father, 
cometh unto me."* In every event the first step is tak- 
en by God. He is in all things the first and the last, the 
beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega ;f and 
He is also the Beginning, the very Alpha of our salva- 
tion. It is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we are 
to be made perfect, and that the smallest beginning, and 
even the least desire of regeneration, is to be effected 
within us. " It is God," says the apostle to these Christ- 
ians of Philippi, "which worketh in you both to will 
and to do of His good pleasure." J 

The work of salvation is begun by God, not by 
us. Let us not venture to attempt it, then. Of our- 
selves we could never begin it. Let us go to God ; let 
us importune the throne of His mercy, that He may say 
to our souls, Let there be light, as he once said for the 
whole universe.§ Let us stand by His word as by a 
well of water springing up into everlasting life ;|| ask- 
ing Him to pour water upon him that is thirsty, and 
floods upon the dry ground.^" 

The work of salvation is begun by God, not by us. 
Let us therefore be attentive to what God does, and to 
what God says. How often He may have called us al- 
ready ! " Oh, Jerusalem ! Jerusalem ! how often would 
I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen 
gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would 
not !"** Alas for him who is called and will not answer ! 
Do not attempt to justify yourselves for remaining 
asleep, by saying, We can wait until God begins. But 

* John, vi., 44, 45. t Rev., i., 8, 11. $ Philip., ii., 13. « 2 Cor., iv. 
II John, iv,, 14, IT Is,, xliv., 3. ** Matt., xxiii., 37. 



THE WORK OF SALVATION. 113 

say, rather, Let us fear lest He may often already have 
been willing, and we would not. 

The work of salvation is begun by God, not by us. 
What an antidote to pride this truth is ! Who will not 
humble himself when he must say, If God had not call- 
ed me, I had not come. "For," says St. Paul to all who 
hear him, " we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, 
disobedient, deceived, hateful, and hating one another. 
But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior 
toward man appeared, according to His mercy He 
saved us."* What saint can glory in himself, if he re- 
members that, whatever height he may have attained, 
the foundation of his greatness must ever rest upon the 
pure mercy of God. 

The work of salvation is begun by God, not by us. 
To Him, then, the believer will give the glory through- 
out eternity. He will cast his crown before the throne 
like the four-and-twenty elders, saying, " Thou art wor- 
thy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honor, and power ; 
for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure 
they are and were created." And he will fall down 
with them, and will worship Him that liveth forever 
and ever !f 

V. But what will " He who hath begun" do ? My 
brethren, He who hath begun will finish ; He who hath 
begun will perfect. Such is the promise given to us, 
and such is the fifth expression of our text which we 
have to explain. 

The Apostle Peter says, in his first epistle, " Your ad- 
versary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seek- 
ing whom he may devour : whom resist, steadfast in the 
faith."J He thereby declares that the Christian will 
meet with many difficulties in the work of salvation, 

* Titus, iii., 3, 4, 5. f Rev., iv. % 1 Peter, v,, 8. 

K2 



114 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

And, indeed, we find many obstacles which might deter 
" the man who has put his hand to the plough,"* and 
has begun to turn his steps toward that " mark for the 
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."f 

One of the first obstacles you will meet with is, the 
influence of the world. You have fixed your eyes, not 
on wealth which the moth and rust can destroy, but on 
the incorruptible riches of heaven. You seek not the 
glory which the world gives, but the unchangeable glo- 
ry of Christ. You have seen that all the realities of the 
world are mere shadows, that the hopes of the Christ- 
ian are alone realities. Nevertheless, do not sup- 
pose that you have been sheltered forever from the in- 
fluence of the world. It will soon find an opportunity 
to prove its power over you. It will come with its for- 
mer attractions, covered with a hypocritical mask ; and 
when you see its pleasures and its riches, you will say, 
" But these are real things ; I do not see and feel those 
invisible things which I hope for ; and who will warrant 
their reality?" It is thus that seduction will attack 
your souls. But fear not. " Resist, steadfast in the faith." J 
He who hath begun the work in you will not suffer the 
world to regain the power over you which it has been 
forced to yield ; He will not let you become its prey 
again. 

But a second trial is unbelief. It is by faith that you 
will work out your salvation, and therefore the enemy 
of your soul will endeavor to disturb it. "There are 
few who believe in Jesus Christ," your unbelieving heart 
will say ; " if Jesus Christ, and salvation through His 
blood, were realities, would not many more acknowledge 
Him ?" This and other similar artifices are familiar to 
the enemy of our souls, and he never fails to make use 
of them ; but he is " a liar, and the father of lies," says 

* Luke, ix., 62. t Philip., iii., 14. % 1 Peter, v., 9. 



THE WORK OF SALVATION. 115 

Christ. * Believe him not; fear him not; resist him. 
Were you the only one who believed in Jesus Christ, 
He would still be the Truth ;| and even if no one be- 
lieved on Him, He would nevertheless be the Truth ; 
and all His sayings and promises would be yea and 
amen.\ The truth of Jesus Christ does not depend 
upon the dreams of our imagination. Our ridicule, our 
pride, our blasphemy can not for a moment disturb it : 
" He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh ; the Lord 
shall have them in derision."§ But a moment of the 
reign of Christ will have passed away when those who 
now deny His manifestation in the flesh will moulder 
in the dust. Yes, Lord ! " the heavens shall wax old 
as doth a garment, and as a vesture shalt Thou fold 
them up, and they shall be changed : but Thou art the 
same, and Thy years shall not fail !"|| 

A third trial, which may occasion the shipwreck of 
your soul before you reach the haven, is a deceitful 
tranquillity, a wandering away from God. You neglect 
the reading of the word ; you forget what you owe to 
Jesus Christ ; your prayers become colder, and less 
earnest, and less frequent ; you often yield the victory 
to the world ; you seem to be returning to your former 
state of death. Oh, fearful state ! a state w r hich, if it 
last, must indeed destroy the work of salvation in your 
heart ! But God, who has begun the good work in you, 
will not leave it to perish. He will say to you, " Stir 
up the gift of God which is in thee."^[ " Awake, thou 
that sleepest."** He will go after you as a shepherd 
goes after the sheep that is lost, and will bring you 
back into His fold in His great mercy.|f 

Yes, He who hath begun this work will perform it. 

* John, viii., 44. J Ibid., xiv., 6. X 2 Cor., ii., 20. 

$ Ps ii., 4. II Hebr., i., 11, 12. % 2 Tim., i., 6. 

** Eph., v., 14. ft Luke, xv„ 4, 5, 6. 



116 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

He will daily revive His image in your souls. He will 
render your faith more and more simple and childlike. 
He will cause the growth of sanctification in your 
hearts. He will give you an increasing hope of riches 
to come. He will render your love more and more fer- 
vent. He will perform the work. 

VI. But there may be many seasons when you will 
nevertheless be assailed by strong fears. As the man 
of business is sometimes seized with sudden alarm re- 
specting an enterprise, so will it be with you, who are 
engaged in a better enterprise. Your soul will be 
alarmed. " Ah !" you will exclaim, " my soul is down- 
cast at times ; it seems to me that God hides His face 
from me.* Will He not forsake me ? Will He per- 
form what He has begun ?" It was doubtless to dispel 
such anxiety that the apostle added the sixth portion of 
our text : being confident. 

Being confident! This expression proves that St. 
Paul entertained no doubt. How, then, can you enter- 
tain any 1 Shall not your hearts be strengthened by 
this in that filial confidence in our Savior which is the 
privilege of the believer ? 

You fear; your soul is terrified. But tell me, my 
brother, was not the grace of God toward you, in be- 
ginning this work, greater still than that by which He 
will continue it ? Shall you not, then, expect the lesser 
from Him who has already conferred upon you the 
greater ? Will you not be assured that He who loved 
you then so greatly as to call you into His kingdom, 
will henceforth love you enough to keep you from for- 
saking it ? 

But your soul is in great danger ; sin and the world 
threaten to destroy it. And what of that ? Why is it 

* Isai., lix., 2. 



THE WORK OP SALVATION. 117 

cast down, and why is it disquieted within thee ? Why 
does it not hope in God, who is the health of thy coun- 
tenance, and thy God ?* Is this the first time that you 
have been delivered when in danger ? Look back upon 
your own life ! See what your God has done for you. 
Is not the deliverance which you have already witness- 
ed a presage of that which is to come ? At one time, 
the loud voice of your corrupt nature was heard ; at 
another, your faith was greatly disturbed by human un- 
belief, or by the suggestions of the Evil One, and you 
were already returning to the verge of infidelity ; then 
you cast yourself at the feet of your God, and exclaim- 
ed, with a deep feeling of your weakness, " Do Thou 
perform that which I can not do !" Then He delivered 
you. Will not He, who once answered your cry, reply 
to it again ? Is His arm shortened ? Does He not 
hear His children while they are yet speaking ?f Ah ! 
if we kept a daily record of all the mercies of our God, 
how would we blush at the very thought of doubting of 
His faithfulness ! 

And if the remembrance of past events in your life 
be not enough, look at the word of God, and learn on 
whom it is that you should rely. See how He strives 
to make known His love to you ; He is continually re- 
iterating His efforts ; there is not a page of the Holy 
Volume that does not speak of it. What ! in spite of 
His frequent assurances, can you still doubt that He 
loves you ? And if it be true that He loves you, how 
can you believe that He will suffer you to be lost? 

But what is this work which must be performed in 
you 1 It is that for which He gave His beloved Son ! 
Do you suppose that He would have sent His only Son 
into the world to save you, if there were a possibility 
that, after all, you will not be saved ? And what will 

* Ps. xlii., 11. t Isai., Ixv., 24. 



118 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

He do for this work now, since He once did so much 1 
I can suppose it true that any other work might fail, 
but I must always except this. Such is the argument 
of the apostle : " He that spared not His own Son, but 
delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with 
Him also freely give us all things ?"* 

You think it very likely that this work may not be 
performed. Ah ! had it been begun by you, or by any 
mortal being, you would have good reason to fear; 
it is by no means certain that man will accomplish 
what he undertakes. But remember the Author of this 
work! Will not all that He begins be performed? 
While every skillful workman endeavors to render his 
work perfect, will God, the Great Workman, leave the 
work of His hands imperfect? Is the will wanting? 
Is the power wanting ? Will He grow weary ? Will 
He become exhausted ? Will He be disgusted ? Do 
you suppose that Sovereign Wisdom begins a work in- 
considerately, and without knowing how it will end ? 
What absurdities are these, my brethren ! 

But, you may say, we are such insignificant creatures ! 
Were we great saints, we might perhaps entertain such 
a hope ; but we are so weak, so little ! And this, my 
brethren, is the very thing which ought to give you 
most reason for hope ; for the more a man needs God, 
the more certain he is of finding Him. It is upon the 
feeble that He delights to display His power, and upon 
the small that He is pleased to show forth all His great- 
ness. " God hath chosen the weak things of the world," 
says the apostle, " to confound the things which are 
mighty ; and base things of the world hath God chosen, 
yea, and things that are not, to bring to naught things 
that are."f 

And if such reflections have not entirely dispelled 

* Rom., viii., 32. t 1 Cor., i., 27, 28. 



THE WORK OF SALVATION. 119 

your fears, listen to the voice of your God, who speaks 
to you by His prophet Jeremiah : " I will not turn away 
from them ; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that 
they shall not depart from me."* And by His beloved 
Son : " It is not the will of your Father which is in 
heaven that one of these little ones should perish."f 
Again : " This is the Father's w r ill, which hath sent me, 
that of all which He hath given me I should lose noth- 
ing."!; And again : " I give unto my sheep eternal life, 
and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck 
them out of my hand."§ And the apostle, in our text, 
certain of this grace, sings a hymn of triumph, in which 
all who walk in his footsteps must join : " I am persuad- 
ed that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor princi- 
palities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to 
come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall 
be able to separate us from the love of God which is in 
Christ Jesus our Lord."|| 

VII. Until the day of Jesus Christ. This is the sev- 
enth and last division of our text ; it does not need much 
explanation. 

This day of Jesus Christ is the day of the resurrec- 
tion, the day in which Jesus Christ will come to judge 
the living and the dead, and whereunto we are sealed 
by the Holy Spirit.^! It is the day which will end the 
present economy, and will open the economy of eternity. 

In that day will be fulfilled all that remains incom- 
plete. At the first coming of Jesus, every thing which 
had been foretold with regard to Him was accomplish- 
ed. At His second coming, every thing that has been 
foretold with regard to us, respecting the glory and im- 
mortality which He has acquired for us, will be accom- 
plished. 

+ Jer., xxxii., 40. f Matt., xviii., 14. % John., vi., 39. 

$ John, x., 28. jj Rom., viii., 37, 38. % Eph., St., 39. 



120 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

In that day He will break with His own hand that 
seal with which He has sealed us here below, and which 
no power shall have been able to break. 

He will come, bearing immortality in His right hand. 
The sound of the last trumpet will announce the end of 
the struggle, and will call together all the scattered sol- 
diers around their Head. There will be no more sin, 
no more fiery darts of the adversary, no more perfidious 
seductions of the world, no more death. These shall be 
swallowed up forever. This corruptible must put on 
incorruption. This mortal must put on immortality. 
And all saints will exclaim with the apostle, " O death, 
where is thy sting ? O grave, where is thy victory ? 
The sting of death is sin ; and the strength of sin is the 
law. But thanks- be to God, which givetk us the 

VICTORY, THROUGH OUR LoRD JeSUS CHRIST."* 



Such, my brethren, is the work of which we were to 
give you the history. Such is the work which was per- 
formed at Philippi when the apostle went to preach the 
Gospel there ; and which should be performed in all 
ages throughout the world. In explaining the words of 
St. Paul, we have spoken as though that work were be- 
gun in you ; it was necessary to do so, in order to give 
them the meaning which the apostle intended. Never- 
theless, it is clear that when we treat of any work what- 
soever, we must make a distinction between two differ- 
ent classes of persons : those in whom it is begun, and 
those in whom it is still wanting. To know, with re- 
gard to the work w r e are now speaking of, who belongs 
to one or the other of these classes, or, at least, to know 
in whom it has not been begun, is not in the power of 
man, but in that of God alone. Scarcely do we know 

* 1 Cor., xv., 55-57. 



THE WORK OF SALVATION. 121 

our own hearts ; how, then, can we know those of our 
brethren? In how many souls may this work have 
been performed without any outward appearance of it! 
And is it the part of man to try the hearts and the reins? 
Nevertheless, these two classes exist, and we not only 
can, but must believe in their existence. 

Thus, remembering first those in whom the work of 
salvation has not yet been performed, we exclaim, O! 
may they feel that this work is the only one whose is- 
sue is certain, the only one which gives happiness, and, 
consequently, the one to which it is wisest to devote 
one's self! May their hearts, like Lydia's, be opened by 
the Lord, that they may attend to the things which are 
written in the word of God ! May they see that this is 
the work to which they are called as immortal crea- 
tures ; the work which will restore them to the throne 
from which sin had driven them. "Ho! ye that have 
spent money for that which is not bread, and your la- 
bor for that which satisfieth not, incline your ear, and 
come unto me ; hear, and your soul shall live, saith the 
Lord."* 

And to you in whom God has begun His good work, 
to you who, having labored and been heavy laden, have 
found rest unto your souls in Christ,f to you, O my be- 
loved brethren, I address my closing words, and I say, 
Take courage : however small the beginning may 
have been, take courage. Be assured that He who has 
lighted your lamp, though its light may be very dim, 
will not extinguish it, but will always pour oil into it, 
that it may give more light. Take courage. Use with 
activity the strength which has been given you. Resist 
sin ; grow in faith ; apply your efforts to the perform- 
ance of good works. This is your calling. Let your 
powerful weapons, before which every bulwark must 

* Is., lv., 1-3. t Matt., xi., 28, 29. 



122 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

fall, be these : the word of God, and prayer in the name 
of Jesus Christ Do not stop to say, " I can not do it." 
Those words do not exist in the language of the believ- 
er. What you can not do, God can do. He is now 
your only strength. Your duty is to advance without 
fear ; it is for Him to lead you to the goal. His strength 
will be made perfect in your weakness.* " Fear not, 
thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel ; I will help 
thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One 
of Israel. f I the Lord have called thee in righteous- 
ness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee."J 

" Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abun- 
dantly above all that we ask or think, according to the 
power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the 
Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world with- 
out end."§ Amen. 

* 2 Cor., xii., 9. t Is., xli., 14. % Is., xlii., 6. $ Eph., iii., 20, 21. 



THE CHARACTER ESSENTIAL TO THE THEOLOGIAN. 123 



VII. OF THE CHARACTER ESSENTIAL TO 
THE THEOLOGIAN, AND TO CHRISTIANS 
IN GENERAL IN THE PRESENT DAY.* 

A DISCOURSE. 
2 Timothy, lis. 

The Church is entering upon a new era. The peri- 
od embraced in the last twenty or thirty years will be 
designated as the Era of Revival in the Nineteenth 
Century; it has been characterized by an active, even 
an aggressive spirit. It has been a period of conquest ; 
the great object seemed to be to advance into countries 
kid waste by the infidelity of the eighteenth century, 
©r enslaved by Romish despotism, and plant the stand- 
ard of the Cross there. All those to whom the name 
of Jesus was precious went forward with one mind, 
like one man. At present, the aspect of things is 
changed. The world before us is still unconquered ; 
and if we had that ambition in our Master's cause which 
Alexander had in his own, we would not falter. 

But is it so ? Do we not see the armies of the Lord, 
in many places, apparently satisfied with the ground 
they have gained, ready to halt, separate, and dispute 
concerning their uniform and discipline ? Some are 
opposed to having leaders ; others want leaders pos- 
sessed of unlimited power. These disputes impede the 
general progress ; and even those who wish to advance 
seem constrained to resist this tendency to anarchy. 
To conquer is not the sole concern now, as it was in 
the preceding era, but to defend ; not to attack merely, 
but to maintain. 

In this new era a new sentiment is necessary. In 

* Delivered at Geneva, on the 3d of October, 1844. 



124 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS, 

times of revival, the most important quality was, per- 
haps, enthusiasm ; in our day, the essential thing is a 
theological and Christian character ; and it is of this 
peculiar want of our times that I desire to treat* 

"In the last days, perilous times shall come," says 
the apostle in the chapter which has been read in your 
hearing. Alas ! the fall of a stone is not more natural 
than the tendency of man and of the Church to turn 
away from the living God. 

Now, what precept does the apostle give for resisting 
the evil which was to be developed in the last days ? 
" Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned." 
Continue ; this is the term by which St. Paul defines 
the theological and Christian character. To be without 
a character, to be wanting in character, is always de- 
serving of blame ; but it is peculiarly so with reference 
to the vocation to which you are to consecrate your- 
selves. To have a character, to display character, is, 
on the contrary, praiseworthy; and it is peculiarly so 
when the sacred ministry is concerned. No theologian 
has ever had much influence over the age, no mere 
minister of the word has ever been blest in his pastoral 
labors, unless he has had, at least to a certain extents 
this mental quality. 

Indeed, it is necessary for a man to have received an 
impression upon his own mind before he can communi- 
cate it to others. Go to a printing establishment, and 
ask a printer how he can stamp such distinct letters 
upon thousands of sheets which were perfectly white 
before. He will tell you, that when he placed those 
types in his forms, they were clear and distinct. Had 
he used worn and misshapen types, the impression o» 
the paper issuing from the press would have been illeg- 
ible. So it is with the impression which the minister 
of the word is to produce. His own character must 



THE CHARACTER ESSENTIAL TO THE THEOLOGIAN. 125 

have been formed under the influence of the word of 
God by the work of the Holy Spirit, by persevering 
studies, and, if need be, by intercourse with men and 
with the world, before that character can be made fit 
to influence men and the world. 

But what is this character 1 I will first refer you to 
the words of St. Paul : " Be ye of the same mind," or 
the same character, " which was in Christ Jesus." Yes, 
we ought to bear the image, the impress of the Heav- 
enly One. The sons who are begotten by the new 
Adam he begets according to his own image, as the old 
Adam did. It is by impressing us with His character 
that He designs to impress all our fellow-beings with 
that same character. " If any man have not the spirit 
of Christ," the character of Christ, " he is not one of 
His." Come, then, my brethren ; let your hearts be 
moved, and your eyes be fixed on Christ ! 

Is there not, in our days, a want of character, even 
among those whose hearts God has impressed with the 
great doctrines of salvation? How many Christians, 
how many ministers there are, who, though at first they 
walked well, have since wandered away, have been 
drawn into dangerous paths, and have led others along 
with them, for want of character ! 

I do not mean that Christians who are still young in 
spiritual life can have a perfect character. That were, 
indeed, somewhat dangerous ; for, as they do not pos- 
sess the elements necessary for attaining this state, they 
might fall into error. We do not require in the child 
the strength of the strong man ; but we do require a 
growth by which he may one day acquire that strength. 

But among those who ought to be strong men in 
Jesus Christ, how great a want of character there is ! 

Does a man possess a character in the things of God 
when he has no fixed opinion with regard to them, no 

L2 



126 DISCOURSES AND- ESSAYS, 

precise tendency, and who, like the wave of the sea, i« 
tossed to and fro by the wind 1 He may be very tal- 
ented ; but what is talent, in the Church of God, with- 
out decided conviction ? " It is," says a certain theolo- 
gian, " a cloud upon which, perhaps, a thousand beams- 
are shining, and which attracts the eyes of all by its 
splendor ; but which, as it contains no water, passes 
over the earth without a blessing." A man may have 
much learning •> but what is learning without the life- 
giving principle of a powerful conviction ? It is like 
the chaff which is scattered by the wind without pro- 
ducing any benefit. To convince, one must be con- 
vinced ; one must have character. 

Or even, in this case, should we have experienced 
certain convictions, they are produced arbitrarily, with- 
out any rule, without system, without foundation, with- 
out connection ; unless the kingdom of God has become 
a unity in our minds : unless we have acquired in the 
doctrines of Divine Truth an unalterable consistency, a 
consistency which rules our whole lives : and if we are 
seen hurrying by turns in opposite directions, tasting of 
every thing, investing things with every variety of color,, 
passing from one extreme to the other, desiring to be 
every thing, to do every thing i then, though I admit we 
may have many other qualities, there is one, at least, 
which we lack : and that is, a character. 

How many Christians are wanting in character in 
other respects ! The best way of exposing these wants 
is to hold up to view the principal traits of the Christian 
character with reference to the present era. It is more 
easy to say who have not a Christian character, than to 
say who have. Nevertheless, I will make a feeble at- 
tempt, by endeavoring to point out excesses, and guard 
against mistakes. 



THE CHARACTER ESSENTIAL TO THE THEOLOGIAN. 127 

I. PRINCIPAL TRAIT OF THE CHRISTIAN AND THEOLOG- 
ICAL CHARACTER. 
ATTACHMENT TO JESUS CHRIST. 

The Christian, and especially the theologian, should 
beware of restricting himself to one single idea, or one 
single system, even if that system be the truth. It is 
not a system that the eternal Father has given us ; it is 
His own Son. Whosoever binds himself to one system 
only may forsake it for another ; but he who really at- 
taches himself to Jesus Christ will never leave Him. 
The true secret of the wisdom of the theologian and the 
stability of the believer is, an intimate communion with 
the Savior, for in Him are hidden all the treasures of 
wisdom and knowledge. Do not suppose, then, as many 
Christian students often do, that you must resort to books 
to be enlightened, and to Jesus Christ to be sanctified. 
From Him alone proceed both of these graces. It has 
been remarked that the German nations have the great- 
est tendency to internal life, and to mysticism ; and that 
the nations of the Latin race have most inclination for 
systems and scholasticism. I acknowledge the merits 
of the theologians now living in England, Scotland, and 
America ; and yet, when I attempt to account for the 
profound knowledge and the attraction which I find 
among some theologians of Germany, I ask myself: Is 
it not because these men belong to a people who have 
always been more closely attached than we to our Lord 
Jesus Christ ? Brethren, let us adopt the principle of 
their wisdom and their life. But, at the same time, let 
us reject that indolence which prompts men to forsake 
those laborious studies by means of which Jesus Christ 
enlightens His disciples in our days. If a general is 
taught only by continual battles, the character of a the- 
ologian is formed only by constant labor. Luther once 
said that he needed several days to translate one word 



128 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

of the Bible ; and you will need many years of study to 
find one beam of light which will afterward illuminate 
your path through life. 

The attachment to Jesus Christ which has been re- 
ferred to, is not only necessary to attain knowledge ; it 
is also necessary in practical life, and should be made the 
object of constant attention. " Thou, therefore, endure 
hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." As soldiers 
in active service should daily expect fatigue and peril, 
so the servant of Christ should be ready to endure all 
things, thinking only of pleasing his Master. At the first 
command of his Captain, he will go whithersoever he is 
sent, even if it be to the mouth of the cannon at the risk 
of certain death ; for he knows that his Master can do 
for him what no human general can do : He can give 
him his life if he lose it, and even life everlasting. This 
devotion to our Lord Jesus Christ is the basis of the 
true theological character. The man who spends his 
strength in running after forms, human inventions, novel 
systems, and doubtful questions, instead of following 
Jesus, may perhaps be active as it regards his body, 
but can never have a truly Christian character. 

II. SECOND TRAIT OF THE CHRISTIAN AND THEO- 
LOGICAL CHARACTER. 

INDEPENDENCE. 

If we depend on Jesus Christ, we must not depend 
on any man. This observation is the more important 
in our day, because so many various opinions are con- 
stantly promulgated. It is by means of internal devel- 
opment and by real progress that we must attain unto 
the truth. The doctrine we profess must be the conse- 
quence of our own life, and not a foreign garb, which 
we can lay off as easily as we put it on. Does this 
mean that every one must learn only from himself? 



THE CHARACTER ESSENTIAL TO THE THEOLOGIAN. 129 

God forbid ! The tree which grows in our fields, de- 
rives from the atmosphere, from the earth, from all 
sides, the influences and the strength which make it 
grow and yield its fruit in its season. Thus it is with 
our minds, and the most distinguished men of modern 
times are those who have best known how to profit by 
every thing. No one but a fool or a madman could 
wish to begin every thing anew. The truly wise man 
labors with others, and considers himself as a member 
of a vast community. He makes use of the tradition of 
ages, not by subjecting himself to it, as though it were 
the very word of God, but to gain light by it. He 
profits by another's path, to advance the farther himself. 
But all that he gathers he digests and appropriates ; he 
makes it really his own. It is thus that the tree of 
which I spoke, and which is exposed to every wind, 
turns all that it receives into sap, and wood, and bark ; 
and thus the food with which we nourish our bodies is 
transformed into our own flesh and our own blood. Let 
it be so with all that you learn. Do not look upon the in- 
structions which are given you as a piece of bread which 
you must take and put in your pocket without break- 
ing it. Foolish man ! make haste and break it, and eat 
it, and make it a part of yourself. You must not re- 
ceive any thing merely because this or that master tells 
you to receive it, but because the Lord of lords com- 
mands it. Let each truth be infused into your whole 
being ; let it have an effect upon you, upon your feelings, 
upon your imagination, upon your understanding, and 
upon your will. It is only when it has thus influenced 
every part of your being, and has left the traces of its 
passage every where within you, that this truth really 
belongs to you. Be not satisfied with the labor of your 
masters ; the essential labor must be performed by your- 
selves. " I speak as unto wise men ; judge ye what I 
say," 



130 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

III. THIRD TRAIT OF THE CHRISTIAN AND THEO- 
LOGICAL CHARACTER. 
SPIRITUALITY. 

" The flesh profiteth nothing," said our Master ; "the 
words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they 
are life." But man is always inclined to substitute some- 
thing essentially earthly and material in the place of 
spirit and life. This was the sin of Rome. The Church, 
instead of being an assembly of brethren, became, in the 
Middle Ages, merely an external hierarchy ; its head was 
a man, and, if Jesus Christ was present at all,* it was in 
a grossly material sense. We, then, while we defend 
the visibility of the Church, at the same time defend its 
sacred spirituality; and in this respect let us always 
remember the promise of its Head : " Lo ! I am with 
you always, even unto the end of the world." This is 
the grand doctrine of the Real Presence, which is too 
much forgotten among us. I do not refer to the parody 
which the Church of Rome has substituted for it. I 
mean a living, spiritual, and real presence of Jesus 
Christ; a presence the token of which is the Holy Sup- 
per; for if Christ invites us to His table, He certainly 
does not intend to be absent from it Himself. 

Now if the theologian and Christian be an eminently 
spiritual man, let him fear to enter into the field of tem- 
poral things. When our Savior was asked to decide 
respecting worldly concerns, He replied, " Man, who 
made me a judge over you?" When, anxious to draw 
Him into a discussion respecting political questions, they 
brought Him a penny, He kept His eye on that spirit- 
ual kingdom which He came to found here below. 

So it must be with the servant of Christ. I do not 
mean that he ought not to take part as a citizen in nation- 
* That is, if they pretended that He was present. 



THE CHARACTER ESSENTIAL TO THE THEOLOGIAN. 131 

al concerns. His position in such matters must always 
be one of moderation ; but to forbid his taking any part 
in them would be going beyond the commands of the 
Scriptures. What I mean is, that he must not con- 
found politics with religion, nor seek to find in temporal 
matters the strength of spiritual affairs. I mean that he 
must not take up arms for the defense of the faith ; and 
that, rejecting all tendency to insurrection and disorder, 
he must ever, according to the command of the apostle, 
" fear God, and honor the king." In the concerns of 
the earthly kingdom he must be submissive to the pow- 
ers that be ; but in the concerns of God's kingdom he 
must acknowledge no Head but Jesus Christ. What 
he should endeavor to establish is, not the reign of a 
law given by political bodies, or a treaty made between 
cabinets, nor even any particular ecclesiastical form of 
government ; but it is that eternal kingdom, which " is 
righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." 
The true theologian will dread that dependence on the 
State, that secularization of religious institutions, which 
is a death-blow to the Church ; and he will consider 
it his duty to labor with increasing energy for the 
re-establishment of the independence and spirituality 
of the Church. And here, my brethren, I must warn 
you against extremes. There are many faithful minis- 
ters who, in connection with the State, endure this 
union as an imperfection, and have no idea of glorying 
in it as an honor. May God give to all of us the piety 
and zeal which distinguish these brethren, and forbid 
our making the independence of the Church a question 
which absorbs all others, and even the doctrine of 
Christ. Still farther : in claiming autonomy and inde- 
pendence for the Church, I require, it is true, that they 
should be entire. I am even convinced (for the exam- 
ples of Scotland and America prove it) that the Church 



132 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

might always accomplish, with GocTs assistance, the 
duties which He imposes on it, might give the milk of 
the flock to him who leads it, and make those who 
have sown spiritual things in its bosom reap carnal 
things.* I think even that the efforts which it may 
make to accomplish this apostolical precept will be very 
beneficial to it, and will awaken strength which is yet 
concealed within it ; but, at the same time, I wish to 
see nations, and the institutions of nations, imbued with 
Christianity. (Alas ! how far we are from this !) I do 
not wish to separate Church and State to such a degree 
that there will be no communication between these two 
bodies. I claim for the Church the right, if it judge 
proper, to have an understanding with the State for ob- 
jects of public utility, such as the celebration of the 
Lord's day, and of days of national fasts ; general in- 
struction ; public worship, even in the armies, in hospi- 
tals, in prisons, and in other civil institutions. This un- 
derstanding is, if you please, a union in reality ; but it is 
a free and harmonious union. And the independence 
of the Church will be preserved ; and its glory will 
consist in its dependence, not on the officers of the 
civil administration, but on our Lord and Savior Jesus 
Christ. Yes, I believe in the Real Presence of Jesus 
Christ in the midst of His people. Papists and Socini- 
ans may seek another king of the Church ; theirs is 
merely a dead Christ ; but Christians can not do so. 
O, how sad it is to see in our days so many who, 
though they had learned better things, are attaching so 
much importance to union with the State, and who ap- 
pear to delight more, if possible, in their character as 
officers of the public administration, than in that of ser- 
vants of Jesus Christ ! What a state of degradation for 
the Church, when the principal boast of its adherents is, 
* 1 Cor,, ix., n. 



THE CHARACTER ESSENTIAL TO THE THEOLOGIAN. 133 

that they have been appointed by means of the election 
of a deliberative assembly ! The true theologian has 
no wish to have the minister of an earthly king for his 
chief; his Master is in heaven. And when he speaks, 
it is not according to the law of the year Ten,* but ac- 
cording to the laws of eternity, which the angels con- 
template and adore. 

IV. FOURTH TRAIT OF THE THEOLOGICAL AND 
CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 

ALL BY THE WORD. 

The fourth characteristic which should distinguish 
the theologian and the Christian, in the present time, is 

this : ALL BY THE WORD. 

St. Paul, in the close of the chapter which we have 
read, makes two assertions : first, that the word of God 
will do all that is to be done in the Church : " It is prof- 
itable," he says, " for doctrine, for reproof, for correc- 
tion, for instruction in righteousness ;" second, that the 
man whose character is formed under the influence of 
the word of God will be all that the Christian need be : 
" That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly fur- 
nished unto all good works." Thus, the all-sufficiency 
of the word of God is clearly established. Brethren, 
if it be essential that soldiers should be perfectly famil- 
iar with the weapons of their warfare, must not we be 
acquainted with that " armor of righteousness on the 
right hand and on the left," to wit, "the word of truth ?"f 
Resist every temptation to resort to any other authori- 
ty or weapon. With the word of Christ, you can do 
all that you ought to do. It is alone the Sword of the 
Spirit.J 

* The tenth year (1802) of the French Revolution, in which the laws re- 
lating to religious worship were made by Bonaparte. — Trans. 
| 1 Cor., vi. ? 7. % Eph., vi. 

M 



134 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

If, then, the traditions, either of primitive times or of 
the Reformation, are offered to you as a rule, reject 
them. It has been the glory of the Reform* that it has 
abolished all tradition as a religious authority (which 
does not mean that it has abolished history). And has 
it cast down idols to put itself in their place ? If any 
one speaks to you of an unknown magical influence of 
the sacraments, by virtue of which, for instance, regen- 
eration is effected in the infant the moment it receives 
the baptism of water, reject it. It is doubtless much 
easier to say, " I was converted in baptism ;" this saves 
the trouble of being converted afterward. But these 
are vain inventions which are contradictory to the word. 
I have no fear lest He who said, when on earth, " Suf- 
fer the little children to come unto me," should reject 
them in heaven. Do not their angels always behold the 
face of our Father which is in heaven ?f But we are 
regenerated and sanctified only by faith in the Word. 
The Scriptures declare it every where ; and assuredly 
we can assert of children what St. Paul says respecting 
adults : " How shall they believe in Him of whom they 
have not heard ?" J If you are presented with a visible 
ecclesiastical authority, and are required to submit to it, 
even though it be in opposition to the word of God, re- 
ject it. " He that abideth not in the doctrine of Christ," 
says the beloved disciple, " hath not God. If there come 
any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him 
not into your house, neither bid him God speed."§ 

The word Reform is used here as elsewhere to designate the Church 
of Calvin.— Trans. t Matt., xviii., 10. 

% Rom., x., 14. This Popish doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration, which 
the Lutheran Church had abandoned (De quibus nostris temporibus haud 
facile quisquam certet — Marheinecke, Institutiones Symbolics), is not only 
claimed now by an extreme party in the Lutheran Church, is not only the 
hobby of the Puseyite party in England, but has also gained adherents in the 
Reformed Church, at least in French Switzerland. 

$ 2 John, 9, 10. . 



THE CHARACTER ESSENTIAL TO THE THEOLOGIAN. 135 

This, brethren, is the great danger of the Church in 
our days. The traditions, the magical effect of the sac- 
raments {opus operatum), the authority of the visible 
Church, are the shoals which begin to appear, and which 
have already been the cause of many sad shipwrecks. 
Let us dread them, even afar off. Let us remember 
that an invisible current, the current of our corrupt na- 
ture, draws us toward them, and will dash us against 
them, unless we firmly grasp the anchor of the word of 
God. The very strongest minds have been overcome 
by it. The pious Sibthorp was neither Puseyite nor 
Papist when he was traveling for the British and For- 
eign Bible Society, and freely explaining in the houses 
of Christians the holy word which he was endeavoring 
to spread. And yet, what has he become ? Pusey 
himself was neither Puseyite nor Papist when, on his re- 
turn from Germany, where he had been intimate with 
the great Protestant divines, he published a remarkable 
work on Rationalism, which was received with praises 
even in Germany. But he fell, inch by inch, to the lee- 
way. And now England waits the moment when, at 
the head of a hundred ministers, he will bow down be- 
fore " the Man of Sin."* 

* I will perhaps be accused of entertaining unfounded fears, at least on 
the Continent, for those who are the nearest to that abyss may profess to be 
much opposed to the Pope, and may perhaps even write against him. But 
let us not be too easily reassured. The most Puseyistic of all the bishops 
of the Episcopal Church, who, by introducing the absurd ordinances of 
Popery, has caused much excitement in his diocese, and given occasion for 
those noble protests of laymen, before which he was forced to furl his flag : 
the Bishop of Exeter, has just declared, in a public document, that " he in 
no wise sympathizes with any Popish party in the Church, and that he has 
given proof of this." At the same time, he announces " that he desires to be, 
in this world and in the next, with the best and holiest theologians of Eng- 
land (who are called Puseyites, Tractarians, &c), who preach the ivhole Gos- 
pel, in all its parts, in just proportions." Now, what is this whole Gospel? 
Here it is: I translate it literally : *" The necessity of partaking of the sa- 

* We are obliged to translate from the author's version of the original in this case, 
as we have not the document referred to. — Trans. 



136 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

Let us then, my brethren, abide by the word. I beg 
you to bear with me in my frequent appeals on this 
subject.* The word, and nothing but the word ! Not 
indeed a dead letter, but the word, in its light; the word, 
with the abundance of light which dwells in it ; the 
word, and the power unto salvation which God has de- 
posited there. The word ; not the Pope, nor the clergy, 
nor any human power imaginable ; the word of Jesus 
Christ, I mean of Jesus Christ Himself; this is the only 
power whose sovereign and perpetual authority we 
ought to acknowledge in the Church. 



V. FIFTH TRAIT OF THE THEOLOGICAL AND CHRIST- 
IAN CHARACTER. 

ALL FROM GOD, ALL THROUGH GOD, ALL FOR GOD. 

Yes, my brethren (ancfthis brings us to the fifth char- 
acteristic), the Church, in the words of Peter Martyr, 
one of our greatest doctors, is like a notary to whose 
care a will is committed ; this notary has no power over 
the last will of the testator ; and if he were to make the 
slightest alteration, he would be a forger ; in case the 
authenticity of that will were contested, his whole duty 

crament for salvation, the new birth given to ns by God in baptism, the actu- 
al communication of the body and blood of Christ (with the inestimable ben- 
efits of His passion) to the soul of whosoever faithfully receives the Lord's 
Supper, the privileges of the Church, which is the body of Christ, the sin 
there is in violating its unity, the Apostolical Succession of its ministers, the 
want of all covenant promises and salvation to all who have never been 
united to the Church, or have renounced its communion." Such is the 
tvhole Gospel of a man who says he is not a Papist ! But, as an Episcopal 
paper in England (the Record) very truly says, " There is not a single point 
specified in this profession to which a Papist would not subscribe. It is the 
pure Popish doctrine ; in its essence, in its order, in its proportions, it is the 
good doctrine of the Pope." Thus one can have Popery, only leaving out 
Gregory XVI. May God preserve us from these non-Papists, and from every 
thing that might lead us toward them ! Let us not only start back from the 
gulf; let us start back from the current leading to it. 

* See the Discourses (Nos. X. and XII.) entitled Lutheranism and 
Calvinism, and Geneva and Oxford. 



THE CHARACTER ESSENTIAL TO THE THEOLOGIAN. 137 

would be to prove it, for it alone has the power of de- 
ciding every thing. But, such being the notary's duty, 
is it the part of a pious son merely to respect externally 
the will of his father ? No ; he will examine it, he will 
carry out its provisions even in the most minute partic- 
ular. Now, I believe that this is the peculiar character 
of our Reformed Church. It has not recoiled before 
any of the commands of the word of God ; it has adopt- 
ed alike those which are most humiliating to man's reas- 
on, and those which best satisfy the wants of the heart. 
And this is what I demand of you. 

I do not here allude to the various tendencies of the 
Reform, which it is important for us to know, if we wish 
to comprehend the position which we occupy ; tenden- 
cies which I described a few months ago in a discourse* 
to which I refer you, and which I support in all its bear- 
ings. But I allude to that doctrine which is the char- 
acteristic doctrine of our Church ; the doctrine of a gra- 
cious election. This should be the fifth trait of the Christ- 
ian character, not merely in the Reform, but wherever 
the light of the truth shines. " All from, through, and 
for God." The sovereignty of God is the Majesty be- 
fore which our Church, of all others, humbles herself 
and bows down. It acknowledges that sovereignty on 
earth, declaring that the whole work of salvation, per- 
formed in every heart, is, from its very beginning, ef- 
fected solely by the Holy Spirit. It acknowledges that 
sovereignty in heaven, attributing the origin of all grace 
solely to the tender mercies and the eternal counsel 
of the everlasting Father, accomplished on the Cross. 
Reformed Christians ! this doctrine is the precious de- 
posit which the Lord has intrusted to us ; let us not be 
unfaithful stewards. The Most High has commanded 
us to follow this course ; if we follow any other, we lose 

* See the discourse (No. X.) entitled Luthefanism and Calvinism. 
M2 



138 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

our trouble, and we carry confusion into the work of 
God. When the general of an army orders one of his 
regiments to take possession of a difficult position, all 
the soldiers must march in that direction to the assault. 

Nevertheless, my brethren, far be it from us again to 
run into any unhappy excesses. Let us be ready to re- 
cognize truth when it is found in other communions. I 
am convinced that on this point, whatever may be the 
vulgar opinion, there is little or no difference between 
Lutheranism and the Reform. I may perhaps demon- 
strate this at some future time ; for this subject is singu- 
larly obscure in Germany, even to the most eminent 
minds. But, however that may be, far from us be the 
idea that we can find no brethren among those who de- 
ny the doctrine of absolute election. There are many, 
who, though less advanced in the knowledge of the truth 
than we, excel us in zeal. 

Nevertheless, this truth should by no means weaken 
us. As for us, it is by this great doctrine of grace that 
we are to conquer. In hoc vince, the Savior has said 
to us. I pray you, therefore, preach the duty of con- 
version ; I entreat you, tell every man to begin imme- 
diately to strive to enter in at the strait gate ; this ought 
to be your perpetual theme. But let the whole strength 
of your exhortation lie always in that remark of St. 
Paul, " It is God which worketh in us both to will and 
to do of His good pleasure."* 

VI. SIXTH TRAIT OF THE THEOLOGICAL AND CHRIST- 
IAN CHARACTER. 

ATTACHMENT TO THE TRUE CHURCH. 

But ought we then to attach any value to our being 
Reformed Christians ? That is a question which many 
put to themselves. It leads us to our sixth characteris- 
* Phil., ii., 13. 



THE CHARACTER ESSENTIAL TO THE THEOLOGIAN. 139 

tic. There are two Churches: the Church on earth, 
and the Church in heaven. There are many commun- 
ions* on earth, and while we are dwelling here below 
we must belong to some one of them. Now, to which 
do we belong ? I first ask those who have such a dread 
of a historical Church which has already passed through 
a part of its developments in by-gone days, and who 
would prefer to efface every thing, and begin anew : 
Which Church would you, then, prefer to that in which 
you were born and baptized 1 Will you be an Irving- 
ist, a Plymouthian, or a partisan of some other of those 
whimsical doctrines which are promulgated in the pres- 
ent day ? If you are unwilling to enter any one of these, 
will you form a new sect of your own ? I beseech you, 
let us not increase the number of sects, but let us con- 
centrate them all around Jesus Christ. No, no, my 
brethren, let us not, with a presumptuous hand, break 
every tie which binds us to the past, and rush into ad- 
venturous and uncertain inventions. History, too, is 
the domain of God. We have a Church, the Primitive 
Christian Church, reformed in the sixteenth century by 
the word of God ; let us stand by it. As for myself, if 
I am asked to what Church I belong, I reply immedi- 
ately that I belong to that. I want no Arianism, no 
Puseyism, no Plymouthism, nor any other heresy, old 
or new. I am simply a Reformed Christian. This is 
not so novel; it is not so entertaining, perhaps; but it is 
more safe. 

Nevertheless, let us understand this well. The Re- 
formed Church does not, in my opinion, exist wherever 
the walls and seats remain which were once used in 
the days of the Reform. The Church, like its God, is 
not restricted to " houses made with hands." It would 
be a very singular doctrine to maintain that a man 
* I prefer this term to the modern expression denominations. 



140 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

must necessarily be the same being as he whose place 
he occupies. The Turks dwell within the walls and 
the sacred places of Jerusalem, yet they are not the 
people of God. The Reform exists solely where the 
doctrines and principles taught by the apostles, and 
professed by the Reformers, are to be found. Not that 
we ought to reject with pride those Churches which 
were formerly reformed, and are now, alas ! deformed ; 
let us rather bear them on our hearts, and pray that 
God may reform and vivify them anew. But let us 
never forget that it will be out of our power to do them 
any good unless we firmly uphold the standard of the 
word of God, and refuse to make even the least con- 
cession to the spirit of error which has destroyed them. 
The Christian Church, reformed in the sixteenth centu- 
ry, rectified, vivified, perfected, if needful, is our Church. 
I know that in the last century it received many fearful 
wounds ; I know that in many places its members are 
prostrate, and others are still trembling ; but I remem- 
ber, too, the exploits which God has performed by it 
and for it. I gaze with filial piety upon the stakes of 
our fathers ; I venerate that bloody Exodus, in which, 
not, like Israel, bearing the treasures of their enemies, 
not even carrying their own goods, our ancestors left 
all to come and worship Jesus Christ at the foot of our 
mountains, and were even ready to go to the ends of 
the earth. It is something to be able to claim descent 
from an assembly which, like that of the apostles, bore 
the bloody baptism of the martyrs. I do not repudiate 
that inheritance. I do not run after modern inventions, 
unwarranted, untried, without struggles, without glory, 
without past, and without future. 

But this is only the Church on earth, the particular 
apartment allotted to us in the great mansion of the 
Master of the house. The true Church is " the General 



THE CHARACTER ESSENTIAL TO THE THEOLOGIAN. 141 

Assembly of the First-born, which are written in heav- 
en." If we should be connected with the former by a 
thread, we should be united by brazen chains to the 
latter. It has been said, and we ought never to cease 
repeating it, We shall not be asked at the day of Christ 
whether we are Presbyterians or Episcopalians, Re- 
formed or Lutherans, but whether we belong to Jesus 
Christ. Let us loathe that narrow bigotry which would 
fain shut us up in our particular compartment, and iso- 
late us from the other members of our Lord's body. 
I have already shown, in a former discourse, that the 
principle of union and catholicity is one of the essential 
characteristics of the Scriptures and the Reform.* 
Whatever others may say of it, let us stand by it. 

Moreover, this unity of the Church in heaven must 
one day be manifested on earth. " There shall be one 
flock, and one Shepherd."f Precious promise! Yes, 
all barriers shall fall ; every sectarian banner shall be 
torn down, and Christ alone will be King over His peo- 
ple. But when will this glorious day arrive ? There 
are those who would fain have it appointed by orders 
of political cabinets, duly sealed and registered in the 
offices of the civil administration. Others would hasten 
it on by introducing into the Reform the hierarchical 
abuses and the magical operations which it has rejected. 
Others, again, show their inclination to be in favor of it 
by latitudinarianism. Let us reject all these human ex- 
pedients, and expect that union from God, and not from 
man. 

Nevertheless, we have something to do. On the 
one hand, while waiting for the Lord, we ought to be 
sincere in our belief; for if the object were to create a 
man by the union of a soul and a body, would not the 
first thing required be, that the soul should be a real 

* Lutheranism and the Reform (No. X.). | John, x., 16. 



142 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

soul, and the body a real body ? Would we suppose 
that, by deforming the soul and the body, we would 
prepare them for the union? On the other hand, let us, 
above all, defend the great doctrines which are com- 
mon to us. 

You are aware of the proposition made on this sub- 
ject in the late General Assembly of the Swiss pastors 
at St. Gall. # But a few weeks have elapsed since 
then, and already I have received several letters from 
various places on that subject. I will mention, in par- 
ticular, the following interesting communication from 
Scotland : " Our Provincial Synod, which met on the very 
day when this good news came, unanimously resolved 
to address a petition to our General Assembly, request- 
ing it to encourage the proposition from St. Gall." As- 
suredly, we are advancing toward greater unity. Let 
us, then, forget all dissensions, insults, derisive names, 
false accusations, and injurious personalities. Let us 
not yield to a passionate, blind, offensive, and bittei 
spirit, which would revive among us the disputes of 
the sixteenth century. Let us rather exclaim, with one 
heart, " Lord Jesus ! come quickly !" 

VII. SEVENTH TRAIT OF THE THEOLOGICAL AND 
CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 

DECISION, FIRMNESS. 

It is not enough to give a vague adhesion to the 
principles which I have set forth. You must be some- 
thing ; you must know what you want ; and you must 
be and know this firmly and decidedly. Who would 
wish to be wavering, unable to take a stand either on 
one side or on the other? Thus, decision has become 

* In the summer of 1844. From this proposition and the favor with 
which it was received at St. Gall have grown those measures which have 
been since adopted in Great Britain to bring all Evangelical Protestants into 
a Christian Union or Alliance. — Trans, 



THE CHARACTER ESSENTIAL TO THE THEOLOGIAN. 143 

one of the watchwords of our day. But if there are 
some men who have not enough of this, there are oth- 
ers who carry it to an extreme which we can not rec- 
ommend. Are we not, perhaps, too easily persuaded 
that none can be decided but those who are on our side, 
or, at all events, who are diametrically opposed to it? 
We do not require you to renounce, from this time forth, 
all the important questions which theological science 
presents. Nay, we believe that sometimes a theologian, 
whose views are very decided, may, after a long career, 
preserve a respectful silence on some particular question 
which, in hrs opinion, the word of God has not settled. 
A narrow, false, exaggerated decision of opinion im- 
pedes the free action of the mind, and prevents a man 
from growing in knowledge. By such means are closed 
all the openings through which greater light might 
enter. So did not Paul. " I reach forth," said he, 
" unto those things which are before." None but nar- 
row minds shut themselves up in their contracted views. 
Men of character will advance, adapt themselves to their 
times, and adapt their times to themselves. There is a 
constant exchange going on between them and the 
times in which they live. The greatest theological 
characters, from St. Paul to Augustine, from Augustine 
to Luther, from Luther to Chalmers, have always pass- 
ed through successive phases, and have even undergone 
remarkable changes, which were brought on by internal 
developments, and by the ways of God Himself. If a 
new opinion be the consequence of one held previously, 
it is a mark of development, and not of contradiction, 
as the vulgar may suppose. It is thus that Augustine, 
after having believed that man could do every thing, 
came to the conclusion that man has only half of the 
work of his salvation to perform, and finally acknowl- 
edged, at a still later period of his life, that the work of 



144 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

conversion belongs to God alone. We ask you to be 
firm in all essential matters, and to be decided, whenever 
you shall have wisely, truly, and firmly recognized the 
truth of a doctrine ; we ask you not to be always un- 
certain, wavering, driven from side to side by the vari- 
ous tendencies which are manifested in the Church, at- 
tracted sometimes by one and sometimes by another, 
like those idle children amusing themselves in the mar- 
ket-place, who, instead of going to their work, are in- 
duced to visit this place and that place by all the wild 
children in the town. These men, said our Lord, will 
tell you, " * Lo ! here is Christ !' or, ' there !' Believe it 
not ; for there shall arise false Christs, and false proph- 
ets. Wherefore, if they shall say unto you, ' Behold, 
he is in the desert !' go not forth ; ' Behold, he is in the 
secret chambers !' believe it not."* Nothing is so nec- 
essary to the Church in our days as firmness in Jesus 
Christ. Seek, therefore, by constant study of the word, 
by continual prayer, by holy meditations and useful 
conversations, to obtain a proper, an enlightened, a 
Christian, and an immovable conviction. Be like a 
tree ; its extreme branches are thin and flexible ; you 
can bend its smallest boughs as you please ; but as for 
the trunk and the larger branches, were you to strive 
with all your might, were you to call a thousand men 
to your assistance, you could not break them. Iron 
itself, which, says Daniel, breaks all things, will not 
move that conviction. Thus it was with Jesus Christ. 
Nothing could turn Him away from His object ; and it 
was by means of that indomitable and divine firmness 
that He accomplished the task which was given Him 
to do. 

* Matt., xxiv., 23, 24, 26. 



THE CHARACTER ESSENTIAL TO THE THEOLOGIAN. 145 



VIII. EIGHTH TRAIT OF THE THEOLOGICAL AND CHRIST- 
IAN CHARACTER. 

BOLDNESS OF PROFESSION. 

Hence necessarily follows the eighth trait of the 
Theological and Christian character: boldness of pro- 
fession. A man should have great freedom in express- 
ing, and great courage in maintaining a conviction prop- 
erly acquired. Of course, you should beware of defend- 
ing your opinion with repulsive harshness and passion- 
ate zeal. That is not the boldness which we want ; 
true firmness is calm, temperate, considerate. When a 
man knows that he possesses the Truth, when he is cer- 
tain of victory, he can be gentle, pacific, and patient, as 
God is patient, because He is eternal. 

But, at the same time, what is your conviction worth, 
if you are ashamed of it, and even if you are unable, 
whenever it is proper and useful, to present it boldly ? 

We must take the oath which Luther took when he 
was made a Doctor of Theology : " I swear manfully 
to defend the truth of the Gospel." When a man knows 
the Truth, he must know how to defend it with decision, 
and go forward with courage. This Christian charac- 
teristic demands energy, strength of mind, firmness, and 
manliness. Perhaps storms may rise against you ; winds 
may arouse the waves of the ocean, and they may over- 
whelm you ; but when the tempest has passed, and calm 
has returned, you will be found in the same place, pro- 
claiming with the same tranquillity the words of truth 
and life. 

This courage you will show especially by unwearied- 
ly opposing every error which may arise in the Church. 
I know it would be much more pleasant to keep silence, 
but then what would we be ? " If a dog barks," says 
Calvin, " when its master is attacked, shall not I cry out 

N 



146 fiiseoaRSEs xxd essays* 

when the doctrine of my God is attacked V If, throagfe 
fear of men, through a desire to please them, through 
indifference, or through indolence, you keep silence m 
presence of error, you will be dumb d$gs,-but yon will 
not be true theologians. Look at your Master, in that 
nocturnal council, that senate of blood, where He ap- 
peared in the midst of the priests, already condemned 
by them in their own minds, already delivered into the 
hands of the soldiers, covered with contempt,, without 
any hope of safety for Himself; when the high priest 
puts to Him that decisive question, " Art thou the 
Christ?" He answers with a calmness, a dignity, a bold- 
ness which strikes the interrogator with such astound- 
ment that, rending his clothes, as it were to give vent to? 
the anguish of his conscience, he cries out, " He hatb 
spoken blasphemy !" That blasphemy was the simple 
and sublime reply, " Thou hast said; nevertheless, I say 
Bntoyom, hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on 
the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds o£ 
heaven !"* 

Such, my brethren, is your example : in the midst of 
whatever danger, maintain the truth in all its strength^ 
but with great humility, and with perfect mildness. 



Brethren, I have done. Such is the Theological and 
Christian character which you ought to make your own. 

I will add but a few words. If this character be nec- 
essary at all times, it 13 particularly necessary in these 
days, which are so exciting and critical, in which all 
things are fermenting, and during which the Church of 
God is to arise out of an immense chaos. The enemy is 
at work, and is sowing many tares in the field where 

* Matt y %%vl, 63,-65. 



THE CHARACTER ESSENTIAL TO THE THEOLOGIAN. 14T 

the Lord has sown His word. Every where, among 
the ministers as well as among the members of the 
Church, there are souls who have had enough of Jesus 
Christ, enough of His grace, enough of His Cross, 
enough of His Spirit of life. They want something 
new, something which has a peculiar relish ; old things 
have grown wearisome to them. Scarcely has some 
meteor appeared on the horizon, when, turning away 
from the Sun of Righteousness, they hasten into the 
marshes toward which that deceitful light leads them. 
As there are bodies which are susceptible of receiving 
all diseases, so there are minds which imbibe all errors. 
One day you will see them rushing into the arms of the 
prophets and apostles of Irvingism ; on the next, into 
the radical ideas of Plymouthism ; on the next, into the 
pretensions of Ecclesiastical Hierarchism, of which Pu- 
seyism and Popery are the finest expressions, but which 
finds among us a great number of transformations, mod- 
ified and corrected, but by that very modification and 
correction made still more dangerous. So, if there ap- 
pears any palpable folly, or any error like those which 
are discussed in the taverns, you will find minds that 
will adopt, imbibe, and proclaim them. This has al- 
ways held true. 

Thus, my brethren, we will close with the words we 
heard at the outset : " Perilous times have come." There 
is need, then, of strong men, created and renewed by 
the hand of God, who will come up to the breach for the 
sake of His cause. 

Lord ! create unto Thyself, in holy pomp, that army 
covered with the armor of Thy word ; and do Thou 
soon possess dominion over Thine enemies ! 



148 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 



VIII. THE CHURCH CALLED TO CONFESS 
JESUS CHRIST. 

A DISCOURSE. 

" Whosoever, therefore, shall confess me before men, him will I confess 
also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me 
before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Think 
not that I am come to send peace on earth ; I came not to send peace, but a 
sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the 
daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother- 
in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that lov- 
eth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me : and he that loveth 
son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not 
his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his 
life shall lose it : and he that loseth his life for my sake, shall find it." — 
Matt., x., 32-39. 

The words you have just heard were uttered by our 
Lord in anticipation of times of trial. The state of the 
Church was to be represented for three centuries by that 
woman whom St. John saw in his Revelation, u clothed 
with the sun," which is Jesus Christ our Righteousness; 
having "upon her head a crown of twelve stars," the 
crown of the apostles ; " crying, travailing in birth, and 
pained to be delivered."* It was necessary, then, that 
Christ should strengthen her in the confession of the 
Faith, that she might remain firm throughout her long 
and terrible sufferings. 

My brethren, we are living in days which, perhaps, 
have some analogy to those in reference to which these 
words were pronounced. 

Various signs seem to indicate that the times are 
drawing nigh when the Church, so long restrained by 
boundaries too narrow, will spread abroad among all 
the nations of the earth ; when Israel, converted, will 
be restored to their ancient home, and when the False 

* Rev , xii., 1, 2. 



THE CHURCH CALLED TO CONFESS JESUS CHRIST. 149 

Prophet of the East and the High Priest of the West 
will see their empires broken to pieces. The statesmen 
who are least acquainted with the prophecies, the news- 
papers of the most infidel sentiments, are already speak- 
ing of some of these events. The Jews are turning 
their eyes toward the Holy Land ; at Constantinople 
the Turk feels the ground tremble under his feet ; and, 
as a missionary who had been to Jerusalem, and had 
there been intimate with some of the highest Moham- 
medan families, lately informed us, a rumor is spreading 
all over the East that Mohammedanism is about to fall; 
that Jesus Christ will soon come down and stand on the 
summit of the great mosque at Damascus, and will unite 
Judaism, Christianity, and Mohammedanism into one 
primitive religion. These are the presentiments of the 
people. 

But before these things come to pass, there will be 
final struggles ; the Bible predicts this, and the present 
times confirm it. In truth, do we not see the enemies of 
Christ strengthened, the systems of infidelity and panthe- 
ism audaciously confronted with the cross of Jesus, the 
powers of Rome revived over the whole extent of the 
earth, monasteries building in France, a celebrated so- 
ciety, the most devoted cohort of Popery, establishing 
itself every where, and even in the bosom of our Con- 
federation ? Do we not hear of wars and rumors of 
wars? Is not the Levant crimsoned and furrowed 
constantly by the flashes of lightning which foretell 
the thunder-storm ? Are not the powers of the East 
and the West assembled now around the Land of Rev- 
elation, that Judea which is again becoming the center 
of the world, that Jerusalem, of which it is said, " In 
those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall 
dwell safely."* 

* Jer., xxxiii., 16. 
AT 9 



150 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

We do not pretend, my brethren, to know the times 
or the seasons ; but if, on the one hand, we ought to 
display great discretion and reserve in these matters, 
would it not, on the other hand, be closing one's eyes to 
the light, to suppose that, both in a political and religious 
point of view, the world is now in a tranquil and ordi- 
nary state, instead of being in a critical condition ? I 
think, then, that it will be proper to meditate with you 
upon the words which our Lord addressed to His dis- 
ciples for the purpose of strengthening them during three 
centuries of persecution, and which will strengthen His 
children to the end of the world. 

In such times as those to which we have referred, the 
great work to which Christ calls His followers is, to con- 
fess His name with boldness. This is, First, the duty of 
every Christian ; and, Secondly, the duty of the Church. 
Let us consider these two duties ; and may the Lord 
grant us strength to fulfill both. 

I. 

We often meet with men (and perhaps there may be 
some such in this assembly) who would fain be Christ- 
ians, converted Christians, but without saying any thing 
about it to any one, and provided it might remain a se- 
cret to all save themselves and their God. These feeble 
Christians have an excessive fear of every thing that can 
make them known as such. You will hear them say, 
to justify themselves, that " the kingdom of heaven is 
within us," and that Christianity is too holy a thing to 
be displayed before the world. But (though they may 
not perceive it) it is their fear of the world that governs 
and restrains them. 

A notorious and corrupt Church has adopted this mis- 
erable hypocrisy. The Church of Rome permits that a 
man should be converted without his acknowledging it 



THE CHURCH CALLED TO CONFESS JESUS CHRIST. 151 

'There are secret Roman Catholics in Protestant coun- 
tries, and especially among the heathen. The many 
pretended converts in China, of which Rome boasts so 
loudly, conceal their faith in that empire, and call them- 
selves idolaters.; there, too, we find that Christianity 
without any confession of faith, which some wish to see 
established in the bosom of Christendom. 

But the Evangelical Christian Church rests on prin- 
ciples directly opposite, although some have been desir- 
ous, in our days, of falsifying its nature in that respect. 
it declares with the apostles that it is not enough to 
4 ' believe with the heart unto righteousness ;" one must 
-also *' with the mouth make confession unto salvation.;"* 
and instead of the accommodations and subterfuges of 
Rome, instead of the silence, indifference, fear, and re- 
spect of men, which characterize some Protestants, who 
forget the rock out of which they have been formed, 
the Evangelical Church proclaims and duly heeds the 
firm and sovereign declaration of Christ: " Whosoever 
shall confess me before men, him will I confess also be- 
fore my Father which is in heaven; but whosoever 
shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before 
tny Father which is in heaven/* 

Yes, feeble and timid Christians ! It is not enough to 
believe that we belong to Christ in our inmost hearts. 
If we have truly embraced Jesus Christ, we will make 
Him known unto all men. What ! when we have been 
saved by Him from eternal death, shall we not exalt 
Him with all our souls ? Ah 1 let ail men read in our 
lives an epistle written by the hand of Jesus, and pro- 
claiming His ineffable love ! 

" That is all very true,' 5 you reply ; "but if we are 
not obliged to suffer any thing for Jesus Christ, that is 
no proof that we are unfaithful. It is an exaggeration to 

* Rom., x., 10, 



152 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

pretend that a man can not be a sincere Christian with- 
out enduring persecution. Does not Christianity tend 
to produce harmony, good-will, and peace every where ? 
How can men persecute us with contempt or hatred be- 
cause Christianity has made us better ? Such things 
may have occurred in primitive times, among the heath- 
en ; but in our days, in the bosom of Protestant Christ- 
endom, in our own Church, no one can be tempted to 
deny Jesus Christ through fear of persecution," 

" Think not," Jesus Christ Himself replies, " that I 
am come to send peace on earth. I am come to set a 
man at variance against his father, and the daughter 
against her mother 1" Yes, if your conversion be a 
real one, if you truly confess Jesus Christ, " think not" 
to escape from this universal rule. It is very true that 
the object of Christ was not to bring a sword ; yet such 
has invariably been the effect of His coming wherever 
He has appeared. And how could it be otherwise? 
Look at the facts which occur around you. The Gos- 
pel has affected the heart of a certain person of your 
acquaintance (perhaps your own heart). It has effected 
a radical change, which is visible in the whole tenor of 
the life of this new Christian. This change inevitably 
draws the attention of his friends \ and, in view of this 
work of God, they are driven to this alternative — either 
to undergo it themselves, or to condemn it in him.. Un- 
willing to adopt the former, they choose the latter ; 
they condemn the conversion of their friend as an un- 
reasonable, enthusiastic, fanatical, methodistical meas- 
ure. And if this new Christian (whether it be yourself 
or some one else) be a near relative, their irritation, as 
we constantly see, is only increased ; for the contempt 
and hatred of the world which the believer draws upon 
himself are reflected, in some degree, upon them ; the 
more closely the Christian is connected with them, the 



THE CHURCH CALLED TO CONFESS JESUS CHRIST. 153 

louder is the condemnation which they must pronounce 
against their own hearts. And it is to them that oth- 
ers look for the purpose of bringing back to his senses, 
as they say, the man who, in their opinion, is de- 
ranged. 

Be not deceived, then, my brethren ; there is no need 
of extraordinary circumstances to make the confession 
of Jesus Christ a difficult thing. If you are upright and 
sincere in your profession, you can not avoid opposition ; 
this is the ordinary course of events in the world : " A 
man's foes shall be they of his own household." 

Allow me, then, to ask you a question which your 
words suggest. What will Christ say of you ? Is not 
the manner in which the world has hitherto received 
you a sure indication that Christ will one day reject you ? 
No ! you reply. Some prudence, of course, is neces- 
sary to escape opprobrium ; we have made some little 
sacrifices, some unimportant arrangements. But what 
of that ? If we have not been guilty of great crimes 
against Christian morals : if our only error has been to 
fail to confess Christ before our friends and our family 
as frequently and as courageously as, perhaps, we might 
have done : is that a proof that we do not belong to 
Christ, and that the Lord, for so slight an offense, will 
deny us eternally ? It can not be ! 

Here, again, you shall be answered in the divine 
words which I preach to you, and not in my own lan- 
guage: "He that loveth father or mother more than 
me, is not worthy of me," saith the Lord. " He that 
loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of 
me." If through fear of father or mother, brother or 
sister : if through love for your children, a fear of en- 
dangering the prosperity of a son or the marriage of a 
daughter, you yielded on one occasion, you kept silence 
on another, are you literally, in the sense of this dec- 



154 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

laration of the Master, worthy of Jesus Christ ? With 
your own conscience I leave the answer. 

Still farther: suppose you confess Jesus Christ in the 
midst of your family ; suppose even that you bear the 
reproaches of your mother or your son, and you walk 
faithfully in this path till the last hour; but that then, 
by the prospect of great opprobrium and contempt from 
the world, or, still more, in view of persecution and of 
the stake, you are bewildered, you hesitate, you keep 
silence, and you turn your back on Jesus Christ as Peter 
did, then, notwithstanding all you may have done, Christ 
will have a bitter reproach for you : " Why didst thou 
shrink back ?" He will say to you ; " did I ever recoil ? 
Did I not bear for thee that cross which thou hast re- 
jected ? Did I not consent to be led to Calvary for 
thee ? Did I not, for thy sake, suffer my hands and my 
feet to be pierced ? But as for thee, thou hast loved 
thine ease, thine interests, thy life, more than my king- 
dom and my glory. I know thee not !" " He that 
taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not wor- 
thy of me." 

And why should we wonder at this severity of the 
Lord when we remember that the course we pursue 
with regard to Him is very different from that of the 
world? Which of us would not submit to a painful 
operation, if he knew that that operation would secure 
permanent good to him ? And shall we esteem eternal 
life unworthy of the endurance of a few short hours of 
suffering? Ah! you have not now before you the 
cross, the sword, and the scaffold ; I know that death 
is not presented to your view now. Nevertheless, it is 
at the cost of this that we are to receive Jesus Christ. 
No man belongs really to Christ unless he is ready to 
lay down his life for the purpose of confessing Him. 
It is thus the soul is saved. 



THE CHURCH 'CALLED TO CONFESS JESUS CHRIST, 155 

This semi-faith, if I may so call it, which is seen in 
the Church, and which will undoubtedly fail in the day 
of martyrdom, is a deplorable thing. All are not called 
to confess Jesus Christ on the scaffold, but all should be 
ready to do so. And these words which we preach to 
you arc as true with regard to times of tranquillity as in 
days of trouble and blood z " He that findeth his life 
shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake, shall 
find it." 

II. 

And now we will go farther; wq will look abroad 
upon the whole Church, and say, What is true with re- 
gard to each individual is true for the Church. If Christ, 
in the first place, calls every Christian to confess Him, 
He also and particularly calls the Church to do so. 
And when I speak of the Church, it is still to you and 
to your duty that I refer, with this difference, that it is 
to your duty, not as an isolated individual, but as a mem- 
ber of a universal society, the Church. 

The Church is called by its Master to confess Him 
before the world. And is not the duty of each individ- 
ual the duty of all ! Is not the obligation of the soldier 
to be faithful to his standard binding on the whole army? 
And is it not a consequence of God's command to each 
planet to move, that the w-hole system must harmoni- 
ously pursue its course ? 

Every false Church opposes the confession of Jesus 
Christ. " If any man did confess that Jesus was Christ," 
we are told by John, "he was to be put out of the syn- 
agogue."* Every true Church confesses the Lord. It 
is the duty of a minister, not merely as an individual, 
but also as the servant and representative of the Church, 
to imitate Timothy, and like him to profess " a good pro- 

* John, ix., 22. 



156 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

fession before many witnesses."* The Church ought 
in all things to follow its Head. " Christ," the Scriptures 
say, " left us an example, that we should follow His 
steps."f Now Jesus Christ, as we are told by Paul, 
" before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession."} 
And what is the eulogium which Jesus Christ pronoun- 
ced, not of an individual, but of a Church, the Church 
of Pergamos, when the cruel Domitian had shut up the 
faithful Antipas in a brazen ox heated by the fire, as we 
are told in the account of the life of that martyr ?§ The 
glory of that Church, as Jesus Himself declares, consist- 
ed in confessing the name of Christ, and in proclaiming 
its faith in the Lord. " I know thy works, and where 
thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is ; and thou 
holdestfast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even 
in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, 
who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth."|| 

Such, my brethren, is the duty of the Church ; the 
Bible asserts this ; and the Church which does not as a 
body confess the great mystery of godliness, God man- 
ifest in the flesh, is quite as unfaithful and guilty as the 
Christian is who neglects to do so in his individual 
character. These are the conclusions of common sense. 

And this the universal Church has acknowledged. 
Yes, my brethren ; we have not arbitrarily imposed this 
duty on the Church : on the contrary, it tells us that in 
its brightest days it always performed it. 

It felt the need of fulfilling this duty when, in the be- 
ginning of the fourth century, a fatal heresy, denying 
the eternal divinity of the Son of God, began to spread 
throughout the world, and the universal Church was 
assembled at Nice, in the year 325, from the farthest 
parts of the East and the West, as represented by its 

* 1 Tim., vi., 12. t 1 Peter, ii., 21. i 1 Tim., vi., 13. 

§ Bollandi, acta. || Rev., ii., 13. 



THE CHURCH CALLED TO CONFESS JESUS CHRIST. 157 

bishops ; and, rejecting the errors of Arius, declared, in 
the presence of the first Christian emperor, and before 
the whole world," We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, 
true God of true God ; begotten, not made, consubstan- 
tial with the Father, by whom all things were made, 
both in heaven and in earth, who for us men, and for 
our salvation, descended, was incarnate."* 

The Church in Germany felt the need of performing 
this duty, more than three centuries ago, when, in 1530, 
at Augsburg, during the great revival of Christianity, in 
view of the terrible wars and fearful persecutions which 
seemed about to pursue it, and when summoned by the 
Emperor Charles the Fifth to cease preaching the word 
of God, it replied through the Margrave of Branden- 
burg, " Rather will I sacrifice my head than cease to 
confess my God and His Gospel." And when the Evan- 
gelical Princes, solemnly assembled in the imperial chap- 
el, in the presence of that dreaded emperor who ruled 
two worlds, and of a number of princes, bishops, ambas- 
sadors, and the powerful men of the earth, amid all the 
splendor of the age, the Elector of Saxony and his 
brother in the faith arose, the chancellors advanced, and 
for two hours the renewed Church, through its represent- 
atives, proclaimed, in the midst of the deepest and most 
impressive silence, its priceless faith : " Justification by 
the merits of Christ, through grace, and by means of 
faith."t 

The Church in France felt the need of performing 
this duty less than three centuries ago, when, on the 
26th of May, 1559, not with splendor and royal mag- 
nificence, as at Augsburg, but in silence and mourning, 
enduring the contempt, and even the sword of their ad- 
versaries, and under the bloody reign of Henry the Sec- 

* Qeov akrjd(,vbv 6/ioovacov rw Trarpt (Symbolum Nicsenum). 
t Fourth Article of the Augsburg Confession. 

o 



158 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

ond and Catharine of Medici, the deputies from all the 
churches then existing in France assembled at Paris; 
" At Paris," says Theodore Beza,* " because it was the 
most convenient place for the secret assembling of a 
great number of ministers and elders ;" when, having 
entered the capital through the troops of the archers of 
Henry the Second, those ministers and members of the 
Church resorted, during four successive days, to a house 
in the quarter of St. Germain,f one by one, stealthily, 
from different directions, and there remained assembled 
for the confession of their faith, " surrounded by stakes 
and gibbets," says another historian, " which were erect- 
ed in every part of the city ;"{ in the presence of the 
spies of the clergy, the emissaries of the parliament, and 
the soldiers of the king, and obliged almost to hold their 
breath lest they should be betrayed ; and the Church of 
our fathers in France, protected by its humility, pro- 
claimed that noble Confession of its Faith, which its 
ministers and elders then carried to all the provinces, 
and published boldly in the presence of the satellites 
of Rome, and over the ashes of martyrs, saying, in 
tones which still sound in our ears : " We believe that 
from that general corruption and condemnation into 
which all men are plunged, God withdraws those whom, 
by His eternal and unchangeable counsel, He has elect- 
ed, out of His mercy alone, in our Lord Jesus Christ, 
without any consideration of their works. We protest 
that Jesus Christ, God and Man in one person, is our 
entire and perfect purification, and that in His death we 
have a full satisfaction to acquit us of all our sins."§ 
Yes, my brethren, it is thus that at all times the Church 

* Eccles. Hist., p. 109. 

t A part of Paris on the south side of the city.— Trans. 
% Hist, of trie Edict of Nantes, vol. i., p. 18. 

<$> Confession of Faith of the Reformed Churches of France, Art. 12th, 
17th, &c. 



THE CHURCH CALLED TO CONFESS JESUS CHRIST. 159 

has had the courage to confess its faith, to obey its Mas- 
ter, and to " profess a good profession before many wit- 
nesses." 

And shall not the Church in our days do likewise ? 
Shall it remain silent ? Has not Christ been crucified 
for it? Or has it no faith to profess? More than a 
century has passed since the Confession of Faith in Christ, 
our God and Savior, was subverted in this Church of 
Geneva ; but a few months ago, it was subverted in the 
Church of the Canton of Vaud. Almost every where 
the confessions of our fathers have been either over- 
thrown or neglected. The Church is now, as it were, in 
the midst of immense remains. Ruins — ruins — nothing 
but ruins. 

Ah! while the adversaries are so cunning in the work 
of destroying, shall the friends of Jesus Christ be so re- 
miss in that of rebuilding ? If the mouths of our fathers 
have been stopped so that they can not speak of their 
ancient faith : if they have, so to speak, put them to 
death again, shall our lips remain silent? What! be- 
cause those hands which presented to the world the 
Confession of the Eternal Word made flesh, have for 
three centuries been lying cold and rigid in the tomb ; 
because those eyes which gazed with mildness and bold- 
ness on the kings and executioners, have for three cen- 
turies been closed and sightless ; because those feet 
which hastened to the stake, if necessary, rather than 
cease to confess Christ, are disjointed and scattered ; 
because those lips which exclaimed in the midst of the 
multitude, and when surrounded by flames, " Emmanu- 
el ! God with us !" have been closed and silent for three 
centuries in the dust of death : shall we, in our day, do 
nothing, confess nothing, say nothing ! O corpses that 
we are ! Since we are dead, let us renounce the very 
name of life ; let us go and lie down in the grave, if we 



160 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

can not speak any more than its inhabitants. That 
Church which is beneath the ground, and which awaits 
the archangel's trump and the voice of the Son of man, 
would shudder in its dust, if it could know the luke- 
warmness of the Church in our days. The courageous 
dead would rise from their sepulchres, and say, " We 
had arms to move, and lips to speak : have you arms 
and lips to remain quiet ? And do you not hear that 
august and fearful voice which makes us tremble even 
in our tombs : * Whosoever shall deny me before men, 
him will I also deny before my Father which is in heav- 
en?'" 

My brethren, the Church needs a confession of faith, 
that it may manifest its unity. The duty of unity is a 
command prescribed by our Master. We can not avoid 
it. Now it is not by an earthly head, by a worldly hie- 
rarchy, by uniformity of worship and liturgy; it is not by 
crosiers, mitres, or censers ; it is not by any of these 
things that the unity of the Church is manifested ; it 
leaves these beggarly elements for the world. The 
true Church of Christ has no other bond than the unity 
of its faith and confession, in the charity and holiness of 
life. All external things, of which men make so much 
parade, are merely secondary with it. All is free in it, 
save only Jesus Christ. Let Rome talk of her false and 
lifeless unity ; the Church of Christ will display a living 
and true unity ; unity, not uniformity. Yes ! in view of 
that dead uniformity of Rome, which is like the uniform- 
ity of parade in the armies of the kings of this world, let 
us answer by a loud and unanimous confession of *' the 
Lord our Righteousness," like that of the angels who lie 
prostrate before the eternal throne. The former unity 
is that of the children of this world ; the latter, that of 
the children of heaven. What an admirable unity was 
that of the Church at its great revival in the sixteenth 



THE CHURCH CALLED TO CONFESS JESUS CHRIST. 161 

century ! It was no servile uniformity ; there was free- 
dom on every point in which men can be free ; but there 
was also a sublime and imposing harmony in the con- 
fession of Divine Truth. Take the confessions of Ger- 
many, Switzerland. Belgium, France, England, and Scot- 
land; there is everywhere the same Faith, the same God, 
the same Christ, the same Salvation. In the Church of 
Rome, the principal things are, men : priests, bishops, 
and pontiffs ; its unity consists in their being united. In 
the Christian Evangelical Church, the principal things 
are, Faith, the heavenly Doctrine, the Truth of God ; that 
is to say, God Himself; and its unity consists in the 
unanimous Confession of this Truth. Every Church 
which ceases to seek unity in that Confession of the same 
doctrine, and would make it consist in union with the 
Chiefs or Companies who direct it, may indeed bear the 
name of" Protestant ;" but in this it has adopted the es- 
sential characteristic of Popery. It is not walls which 
must soon fall, or leaders, ephemeral beings who to- 
morrow will be lying in the tomb, that constitute the 
essential thing in the Church. The worshiper of the 
Virgin and the Saints, in Spain or in Italy, obeys the 
pontiff who is at the head of the oldest Church of the 
West ; and the Turk at Constantinople bows down in 
the ancient halls of Justinian and Theodosius.* Stones 
are nothing ; men are nothing ; Christ is every thing. 
To suppress the unity of faith and the confession of 
Christ is to suppress the Church. Then there may in- 
deed be a few Christians yet, scattered here and there ; 
there may be walls, priests, and ruins ; but there will 
be no Church ; for no assembly of God can exist where 
there are only foreign, perhaps opposing elements, with- 
out any divine and eternal bond to unite them. 

My brethren, we must have a confession of faith of 

* The Mosque of St. Sophia. 

O 2 



162 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

the Church ; for it is by means of that confession that 
the Church must conquer. What are "its weapons, 
mighty to the pulling down of strong-holds," as St. Paul 
says? Those weapons are tlie confession of Jesus 
Christ. This is the only strength of the Church. 
What would become of it were the confession of faith 
wanting in it ? It would become an accidental aggre- 
gation of certain semi-civil societies, each of which acts 
according to its own good pleasure, or according to the 
pleasure of its rulers ; like a tree, the trunk of which 
has been severed, and whose separated and scattered 
branches can only wither and die ; like a body, whose 
head has been cut off, and whose members have been 
scattered to the four winds. How could it, in this 
state, be victorious over its enemies ? Alas ! this is but 
too truly the state of the Evangelical Church in our 
days ; and it is this that gives us much alarm in view 
of the dangers that threaten it. But let the Church re- 
vive and be built up in its most holy faith and in its 
admirable unity; let it put on that strength and life 
which belong to a great community ; let it unite with 
all the ends of the earth in confessing, with one heart 
and with one voice, Jesus its God ; and these are the 
trumpets before which will fall down the strong-holds 
of infidelity and the walls of Rome. " The people 
shouted," we are told by the Scriptures in the account 
of the siege of Jericho ;* " the wall fell down flat, so 
that the people went over into the city." 

And shall it be said, my brethren, as it is often re- 
peated in the world, that though it be true that the 
Church needs a bond, without which it can not exist (a 
concession which it were well to note), yet this bond 
exists in the universally-admitted principle that the 
Holy Scriptures are the only source of our faith. " We 

* Joshua, vi., 20. 



THE CHURCH CALLED TO CONFESS JESUS CHRIST. 163 

do not need," say they, " to confess any doctrine ; the 
Bible, and nothing but the Bible, is our confession." 
What ! the Bible ! and nothing in it ! Is the Bible, 
then, simply a certain volume, bound after a certain 
fashion, and of a certain form, with nothing but white 
leaves in it ? " Freedom of examination," they add, 
" and progress, constitute our Church ; it needs no doc- 
trines ; each minister may have his own, and preach 
them." Thus, my brethren, the poor Christian flocks 
are to be given up to all the imaginations which may 
enter the minds of their ministers ! Each church is to 
change its religion whenever it changes its pastor ! 
Whenever a new minister comes to a village, a new 
religion is to come with him ! One will preach Prot- 
estantism, another Anabaptism, another Socinianism, 
another Universalism, another Romanism, and another, 
even (why not?), Judaism, and, still another, Moham- 
medanism ; for Judaism has more foundation in the 
Bible than most of these other doctrines ; and Moham- 
medanism professes a more explicit faith in Jesus Christ 
than Socinianism itself. And all this must be very good 
for the poor parishioners, who are obliged to pass, to- 
gether with their children, through all these forms of 
doctrines of their masters, just as the footman puts on 
successively the various liveries of the families where 
he serves. Ah ! these latter, at least, only change their 
clothes ; but, in your deplorable system, it would be 
faith, which is to save for eternity, that would have to 
be changed constantly in the soul ! 

" But," they continue, ; ' are not freedom of inquiry, 
examination, and progress, enough?" Certainly we 
want freedom of inquiry and progress, but we want to 
have them real, and bearing fruits of salvation and life. 
To you, those are only expressions by means of which 
you conceal your indifference. What, I pray, is the 



164 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

meaning of your inquiry, which, though it discerns, re- 
tains nothing ? What is your research, which searches 
always, and never finds ? What does your progress 
signify, which, like a certain fabulous traveler, is always 
advancing, but never reaches any point ? For we must 
remember that, in this miserable system, though the 
Church is commanded to seek its doctrine, it is forbid- 
den to find it ; since, as soon as it finds it, and conse- 
quently proclaims it, the system is destroyed ; for then 
it would possess a doctrine, and would return to God's 
truth. 

No, my brethren, it is impossible that the Church 
should have meditated for centuries on the oracles of 
God, which " enlighten the simple," and yet should not 
know what is found in them. It is impossible that the 
Church should believe in the Scriptures, and yet not 
know what the Scriptures tell it. The Church has 
known from the beginning ; it knew in the days of Paul 
and Peter, of Athanasius and Augustine, of Luther and 
Calvin ; it knows now, in every place, and at all times, 
what it rejects, what it believes, what it wants : God 
manifest in the flesh. And if there are any teachers, 
if there are, alas ! any Churches, which have withdrawn 
from this glorious and consoling confession, men only 
have fallen ; the confession is still standing. The grass 
may wither, the flower thereof may fall away ; but the 
word of the Lord endureth forever. 



Thus, my brethren (and with this we will conclude), 
a courageous confession of the Lord arises from the ru- 
ins which lie heaped upon the field of God ; and a loud 
and faithful voice sounds from the very interior of the 
Revival which is taking place. 

But, you may inquire, do you then pretend to say 



THE CHURCH CALLED TO CONFESS JESUS CHRIST. 165 

that the Church in our days ought to confess its faith in 
an authentic and universal manner, as it did in the six- 
teenth century ? 

And why should it not, my brethren ? Do we then 
suppose, as some do, that a command of God is binding 
in one century, and not in another ? I do not say that 
the form ought to be the same as that of the sixteenth 
century ; it might be wholly different ; perhaps it ought 
not to be a confession made once for all, but frequent 
and repeated confessions ; perhaps not confessions made 
with pen and ink, but living confessions made by the 
mouth and the life. " Every age has its peculiar man- 
ner of confessing Jesus Christ, as every age has its pe- 
culiar manner of persecuting those who confess Him."* 
Nor do I assert that this must be done at all times. 
Finally, I joyfully acknowledge that there are lips which 
have spoken, and which still speak. But I simply say 
that " the Church, over the whole world, if it really 
awaits the coming of its Head, ought to confess, with a 
unity and universality far greater that it does now, that 
Christ is indeed the Lord, to the glory of God the Fa- 
ther." 

Then, you may say again, that concerns the minis- 
ters ; you ought to preach to them, and not to us ! What ! 
is the Church composed of none but ministers ? That 
is true only in the language of Popery. You are the 
Church, and you, as well as we, must confess Jesus 
Christ. When the Church professed its faith at Augs- 
burg, before Charles the Fifth, there were none but lay- 
men there to do it. The princes would not yield that 
honor to the theologians. Will you concede it now ? 

Let, us then, my brethren, be confessors of Jesus 
Christ ; let us be such, first, as individuals, as souls call- 
ed out of darkness into Christ's marvelous light, and 

* Quesnel. 



166 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

proclaiming the virtues of Him who hath redeemed us, 
by our words, by our lives, and by all our actions. 

Let us, then, be confessors of Jesus Christ, my breth- 
ren ; but let our confession be sustained by faith and by 
internal life. Confession can be free and real external- 
ly, only so far as sanctification advances internally. A 
confession with the mouth, without renouncing self, and 
without the life of the heart, is hypocrisy, that is to say, 
an abomination in the sight of God. 

Let us be confessors of Jesus Christ, my brethren ; 
but let us confess Him with wisdom and charity ; with- 
out uselessly affecting singularity ; without giving too 
much importance to secondary objects ; without forget- 
ting that we must carefully watch the dispositions of our 
own hearts. Perhaps your father or your mother re- 
quires of you an act of conformity to the world ; you re- 
fuse to perform it ; you do well ; but if, in doing so, you 
are violent, or wanting in respect, you sin against the 
Lord. 

Be confessors of Jesus Christ, my brethren ; but con- 
fess Him willingly, boldly, joyfully ; not with that timid- 
ity, that mournful or gloomy aspect, with which Christ- 
ians are sometimes reproached. There is joy in the 
harmony of an identical and universal confession ; but 
there is sadness in the discord of human opinions. You 
have nothing to fear. " Whosoever shall confess that 
Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in 
God ;"* and " greater is He that is in us, than he that is 
in the world."f 

Let us be confessors of Jesus Christ, and let each of 
us fulfill this duty in the station in which God has placed 
him. Let the magistrate confess Christ in the council; 
let the mechanic confess Him in his work-shop ; let the 
man of business confess Him amid his occupations ; let 

* 1 John, iv., 15. t Ibid., iv., 4. 



THE CHURCH CALLED TO CONFESS JEStJS CHRIST. 167 

the laborer confess Him in the fields ; let the mother 
confess Him in her family ; let the soldier confess Him 
when in arms ; let each, wherever he may be placed? 
look upon his situation as a sanctuary in which he is 
called to confess the Lord ! 

And you, young men.* who have come back again 
from various countries, and have again left your homes 
to apply your minds to important studies, be confessors 
of Jesus Christ ! Renounce the world and the flesh ; 
be not the disciples and the servants of human masters ; 
do not become great in your own eyes ; but may you 
belong to Jesus Christ alone and entirely ; confess Christ 
by your lives in the midst of this people, and, at some 
future day, as lights of the Church in the midst of the 

world. 

■ 

But shall we, my brethren, be content with individual 
confessions? In all the works of God we find union 
and harmony, and we see, too, what great things are 
effected by these. On our mountains, a drop of water 
fallen from a glacier mingles with another drop of water ; 
rivulets unite with rivulets, torrents unite with torrents ; 
and from all these collected waters proceed those beau- 
tiful rivers, which hasten far away to carry life and fer- 
tility to the plains. At the dawn of creation, when " all 
the sons of God shouted for joy,"f one world, at the 
Lord's command, approached another world, and "the 
morning stars sang together," and the heavens began 
that harmonious march of the universe which fills the 
soul with wonder and adoration. When the beloved 
disciple was ravished in spirit, and beheld " a throne set 
in heaven, and One sitting on the throne,' 7 one voice 
joined another voice ; many angels around the throne 
united their songs ; and there were " ten thousand times 
ten thousand," and " every creature which is in heaven, 

* The students of the Theological Seminary. f Job, xxxviii , 7. 



168 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are 
in the sea, and all that are in them," replied ; and these 
united voices were "as the voice of many waters, and as 
the voice of a great thunder."* Let us also, O ransom- 
ed of the Lord ! do likewise ; let the voices of all here 
below, strangers, elect, and scattered throughout the 
world, unite in holy enthusiasm and courage to ascribe 
glory to Jesus Christ. Let us leave behind us our petty 
individualities ; let us not be satisfied with our feeble 
voices dispersed here and there ; let there be on earth, 
also, a great concert, a magnificent harmony, to cele- 
brate the praises of Him who hath bought us with His 
blood. Let the world, which hitherto has passed by 
without attending to Jesus Christ, be constrained to list- 
en ; and let this voice of the Church become so loud 
that " all the kindreds of the earth shall worship before 
the Lord."f 

Ah ! if my voice could sound beyond this house ! 
if it could be heard in the vast churches of this city, 
in which the faithful voices of our fathers once echo- 
ed ; if, reaching still farther, it could speak to the 
Church of Vaud, to the Church of France, to the Uni- 
versal Church of the Lord, and could say to that great 
assembly, Let us confess the Lord ; for " Worthy is the 
Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, 
and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and 
blessing !"J 

Lord ! I can not do it, and my feeble voice must re- 
main within this humble house of prayer ; but Thou 
canst ! Speak, then, Lord ! and let Thy servants every 
where hear ! Dispel delusions ; tear away every veil ; 
break with Thy mighty hand every fetter which binds 
the noble minds whom Thou callest to freedom ; suffer 
none of Thy servants to " confer with flesh and blood ;" 

* Rev., iv., 2; v., 11, 13 j xiv., 2. f Ps. xxii., 27. J Rev., v., 12. 



THE CHURCH CALLED TO CONFESS JESUS CHRIST. 169 

grant that every where they may be deaf to the thou- 
sand voices of the world that might induce them to 
keep silence, and may they hearken to Thy voice, which 
calls them to confess Thee. The days are hastening 
on ; the times are ripening for the manifestation of Thy 
salvation ; call to Thy Church ; let every soul hear 
Thine imposing voice before the approaching solemn 
day arrives, when, appearing seated on the clouds, 
Thou wilt say of many, " O Father ! they have been 
ashamed of me, and now I am ashamed of them." Oh ! 
may we not have to endure that opprobrium, and rather 
let us all be of those to whom thou wilt say in the day 
of Thy glory, " I have seen thy trials, I have seen thy 
humiliation, I have seen thy faithfulness, thy courage, 
the confession which Thou didst make' of my name ! 
Now I reveal them before the assembled universe ! 
Faithful servant ! enter thou into the joy of thy Lord !" 
Amen. 

P 



170 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS, 



IX. THE CONFESSION OF THE NAME OF 
CHRIST IN THE SIXTEENTH AND NINE- 
TEENTH CENTURIES. 

A DISCOURSE.* 

" Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before 
my Father which is in heaven." — Matt., x., 32. 

Three centuries have passed away since the princes 
of Germany, assembled at the Imperial Diet in the town 
of Augsburg, publicly and solemnly confessed Jesus 
Christ and His word in the presence of the emperor, of 
the princes who still remained under the rule of Rome, 
and of the ambassadors of Rome itself; and not only be- 
fore Germany, but, as it were, before the whole world. 
That day is yet, and will be to the end of time, one of 
the brightest epochs in the history of Christianity. And 
at this time, all the Evangelical Churches of Germany, 
as well as those of other countries, responding to the 
appeal of their princes and their pastors, commemo- 
rate with thanksgivings and songs of joy the Third Ju- 
bilee of that glorious day. In the words of an august 
personage, convoking the people whom he governs, 
" May the festival commemorative of the proclamation 
of that testimony of the faith of Christians, which is still, 
and will ever be, as true as it was three centuries ago, 
and in the spirit of which I heartily concur, contribute 
to strengthen and revive the true faith in the Evangeli- 
cal Church, to awaken in all its members a unity of 
spirit, real piety, and Christian charity and tolerance."! 

* This discourse was delivered on the 27th of June, 1830, at St. Quentin 
(France), that day being the Third Centennial celebration of the Confession 
of the Protestant States of Germany at Augsburg. It was afterward re- 
peated, by request, at Brussels. 

t Ordinance of His Majesty the King of Prussia, May 4th, 1830. 



THE CONFESSION 1 OF THE NAME OF CHRIST. 171 

Will yon not also, Protestant Christians of France, 
remember that day of confession of the name of Jesus 1 
Have you not shared in its blessings ? Were you not 
born, and do you not dwell and fight beneath that spot- 
less banner of the Gospel of Christ, which those noble 
men on that memorable day held up in the view of their 
enemies ? Was it not your faith that those illustrious 
princes and divines confessed then before the universe? 
And do you not march on with flying colors to that 
holy war in which they fought with the powerful weap- 
ons of the word of God ? But, alas ! it is not so ; we 
do not march as they marched ! " Our hands hang 
down, and our knees are feeble,"* and that heroic cour- 
age, which, in those bright days, was the glory of the 
Church of Christ, seems to have forsaken it now. And 
this is the very reason why we ought to commemorate 
this day; to the end that, seeing that we are surround- 
ed by a cloud of those illustrious witnesses for the Truth, 
those magnanimous confessors of the Cross of Jesus, 
who " through faith subdued kingdoms and waxed val- 
iant in fight," f we also may " fight the good fight of 
faith." J "Standing fast in one spirit," they strove in 
that great day " with one mind for the faith of the Gos- 
pel, in nothing terrified by adversaries."§ Disciples of 
Christ, you are called upon to do likewise. The days in 
which you live are no less remarkable than those in 
which they lived, and the same courage is needed. 
Must we remind you, my dear hearers, that these bat- 
tles are not fought with carnal weapons, and to shed 
human blood ? Need we say that they are not to be 
performed in a spirit of violence or hatred ? We need 
not say this ; the examples which we will lay before 
you to-day might, were it neeessary, give you sufficient 
knowledge on this subject. As the events which the 

* Heb., xii, 12. f Heb., xi, 33, 34. t 1 Tim.^ vi, 12. § Phil., i., 27. 



172 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS* 

Evangelical Church celebrates on this day are not as 
extensively known as they ought to be, we design to 
recall them to your minds, and then to draw some con- 
sequences from them. It is not our habit to deliver his- 
torical discourses. But is not every thing which can 
edify appropriate for the Christian pulpit? and have we 
not, on this point, numerous and illustrious precedents ? 
Was not the discourse of Stephen, the protomartyr, 
purely historical? Were not most of St. Paul's dis- 
courses, as recorded in the book of Acts, purely histor- 
ical ? We will not then reject as improper that which 
the Holy Spirit has thought proper. " These things/* 
we are told by the word of God, " were for our ex- 
ample."* 

Spirit of God ! who didst in former times inspire the 
heroes of the Faith, do Thou kindle the same flame with- 
in our hearts 1 Amen. 



The Emperor Charles the Fifth, who unquestionably 
swayed the scepter over a kingdom more extensive than 
that of any other prince, and who, as the sovereign of 
portions of Europe, America, and other quarters of the 
globe, could boast, as it has been said, that " the sun 
never set on his empire," having, in the year 1530 (just 
three centuries ago), overcome his enemies, resolved to 
turn his attention to the religious Reformation which 
was then going on in Germany, and to endeavor to sup- 
press what was termed a heresy. He was solemnly 
crowned on his birthday, the 24th of February, by the 
Romish Pontiff; and these two personages remained 
together for some time in the same palace. The em- 
peror promised the pope that he would exterminate 
Protestantism. It would even appear that he pledged 

* 1 Cor., x,, 6. 



THE CONFESSION OF THE NAME OF CHRIST. 173 

himself to use violence and persecution for the purpose 
of accomplishing his object. At all events, he was ask- 
ed to do so. When this news arrived in Germany, 
many advised the Evangelical princes to go to the Alps 
and meet Charles, sword in hand, and prevent him from 
entering Germany until he granted them entire religious 
liberty. But this was a worldly proposition, and the 
great Reformer, Luther, whom some would fain repre- 
sent as being a man of violent temper, silenced those 
rash counselors. "The weapons of our warfare are 
not carnal, but mighty through God."* 

But the emperor decided that it was wiser to begin 
by using other means than compulsion ; he therefore 
convoked an Imperial Diet at Augsburg, and invited all 
the princes and representatives of states in the empire 
to attend it. Many persons, remembering the violence 
of the enemies of the Truth, which broke out against 
the Reformers in the Council of Constance, entreated 
the Elector of Saxony, who was the leader of Protest- 
antism, not to appear in person at Augsburg. But the 
Elector decided to accept the emperor's invitation; he 
wished to confess Christ in his presence ; for that pur- 
pose he requested Luther, Jonas, Pomeranus, and Me- 
lanchthon, four of his most distinguished theologians, to 
draw up a confession of faith of the Evangelical Church; 
and having commanded that fervent prayers, that the 
Lord might grant him success, should be offered up ev- 
ery where throughout his states, he set out on the 3d 
of April for Augsburg. 

A great number of princes, nobles, counselors, and 
theologians accompanied the Elector. The same spirit 
animated them in their solemn journey, during which 
Luther preached frequently, kindling faith in those no- 
ble champions of the Gospel by his discourses. At 

* 2 Cor., x., 4. •* 

P2 



174 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS", 

Weimar they all partook of the Lord's Supper ; at Co- 
burg the Elector parted with the Reformer, whom he 
commanded to abide there secretly, while the Diet was 
in session. He remained in a castle on the mountain,, 
the upper apartments of which he occupied ; twelve 
knights guarded his room day and night ; but the ser- 
vant of Christ was under safer guardianship ; that of the 
God whom he praised in a beautiful hymn which he 
composed at that time, and which begins with these 
words : 

" A mighty fortress is our God I" 

The Elector arrived at Augsburg before any of the 
other of the princes, to the great surprise of those who 
had supposed that fear would have kept him back. But 
soon a multitude of electors, princes, deputies, bishops, 
and a great number of soldiers of every grade, entered 
the city, and Augsburg was filled with the pomp and 
the splendor of the world. " Why do the heathen rage, 
and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the 
earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel togeth- 
er, against the Lord, and against His Anointed."* 

In the midst of the tumult that surrounded them, the 
zeal of the ministers of the word of God who accompa- 
nied the Protestant princes did not grow cold ; they 
preached the Gospel, and boldly proclaimed the whole 
counsel of God. Many were alarmed and displeased ; 
the preaching produced the effect which the word of 
God always produces when it is first preached in a place. 
" The word of God is making a noise," said Luther. "It 
is a hard saying ; who can hear it ?"f Some complain- 
ed of their discourses, although they simply preached 
the Truth, without any controversy. These wrote to 
the emperor, who was staying at a short distance from 
Augsburg ; he sent word that he thought it best that 

* Psalm ii., 1,2. f John, vi., 60. 



THE CONFESSION OF THE NAME OF CHRIST. 175 

the ministers should cease to preach until a decision had 
been made with regard to matters of doctrine. The 
Elector asked Luther's advice on the subject, and the 
Reformer gave another instance of his moderation : he 
advised that the preaching should cease, if the emperor 
persisted in requiring it ; " for," he said, " the emperor 
ought to be master in his own city." But the Elector 
could not receive Luther's counsel. " To forbid the 
preaching of the word," he wrote, in answer to the 
command of Charles, " is to act in opposition to the con- 
science ; especially in the present time, when we need 
constantly to seek consolation and help from the word 
of God." " Unless Thy law had been my delights, 1 
should then have perished in mine affliction."* Thus 
spake another prince, David, the Prophet-king. 

While Melanchthon, the friend of Luther, assisted by 
other theologians, was constantly engaged at Augsburg 
in drawing up the Confession which was to be presented 
to the Diet by the Protestant princes, Luther was suffer- 
ing great distress at Coburg, both in body and in mind ; 
and he had already selected a spot for the burial of his 
body in his desert, as he called it. The Elector sent him 
the assistance necessary for the restoration of his health, 
and wrote him a very affectionate letter. Luther answer- 
ed it in a strain well fitted to console that Christian prince 
in the midst of the fearful struggle with the enemies of 
the Gospel in which he was engaged. " It is really 
without cause," said he, " that you have deigned to be 
concerned about me. These weeks have passed by so 
rapidly that they scarcely seem like three days. But 
your grace is now in a painful and dangerous situation. 
O may our good Father in heaven assist you, to the end 
that your heart may remain stedfast and patient, relying 
on His mercy, which has been so richly manifested unto 

* Psalm cxix., 92. 



176 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

you. It is only for the love of God that you are called 
to suffer so much danger and anxiety, since all these 
princes and these furious enemies can find no fault in 
you save that you love the pure and living word of God; 
and since they acknowledge that in other respects you 
are an amiable, blameless, pious, and faithful prince. 
And it is certainly a great proof of the love of God to- 
ward you, that He not only gives you His holy word 
abundantly, but also makes you worthy of enduring so 
much hatred and reproach for its sake. It is this that 
affords much joy and consolation to the conscience ; for 
to have God for one's Friend is a greater consolation 
than to enjoy the friendship of the whole universe be- 
sides." 

Strengthened by these words, the Elector John await- 
ed the arrival of the emperor, who was delaying his 
journey. At length, the 15th of June having come, all 
was ready for his solemn entrance. Great pomp was 
displayed, probably for the purpose of giving the Prot- 
estant princes a high opinion of the power and glory 
of the emperor. The electors, the princes, and an im- 
mense crowd went out to meet him. When they had 
come within fifty paces of the emperor, they all dis- 
mounted. The pope's legate took this opportunity to 
pronounce the papal blessing ; the emperor and the 
multitude listened on their knees ; but the Elector and 
all the Evangelical princes remained standing; thus 
giving evidence of their belief and their firmness. The 
procession then continued its march. When it had 
reached the bishop's palace, where the emperor was to 
stay, all were invited to enter, with the exception of the 
noble Elector of Saxony and his generous brothers in 
the Faith. They joyfully bore this contempt, for the 
sake of the cause of Christ, and soon gave another proof 
of their undaunted courage ; for King Ferdinand, the 



THE CONFESSION OP THE NAME OF CHRIST. 177 

brother of Charles, having, in the presence and name of 
the emperor, demanded of them to command the ces- 
sation of the preaching of the word of God, as well as 
to attend the procession of the Holy Sacrament, which 
was to take place on the morrow, the Margrave of 
Brandenburg, in the name of the others, exclaimed, 
" Rather will I kneel before your majesty and sacrifice 
my head than cease to confess my God and His Gos- 
pel !" The emperor having, on the evening of the same 
day, sent a deputation to repeat this request, the Mar- 
grave went to him, w T ith the other princes, at six o'clock 
on the following morning, and said to him, " We are 
unwilling to sanction by our presence such impious hu- 
man superstitions, which are opposed to the word of 
God and to the commands of Christ ! On the contrary, 
we all unanimously declare that we wish to see those 
human doctrines abolished from the Church, and the 
members of Christ's body who are still undefiled pro- 
tected from that deadly poison. Let not your majesty 
be offended if I resist his requests, for it is written that 
it is better to obey God than man. Wherefore I am 
ready, in confessing the doctrine which I know to be 
the voice of the Son of God, the unchangeable and 
eternal Truth, to risk any danger, and even death itself, 
with which, as I learn, those who confess the Truth are 
threatened." Magnanimous courage ! admirable renun- 
ciation of self and of the world ! may our hearts imitate 
this example. " He that loveth his life shall lose it," saith 
Jesus ; " and he that hateth his life in this world shall 
keep it unto life eternal."* 

The procession took place, and none of the Evangel- 
ical princes attended it. 

The princes showed the same firmness with regard 
to the preaching of the Gospel. " The word of God," 

* John, xii., 25. 



178 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

said they, " is not to be fettered ; to bind and restrict it 
is a sin against the Holy Ghost. Besides," added these 
magnanimous men, " as we are mere sinful beings, we 
need the preaching of that Divine word to console our 
consciences. We can not do without the daily nourish- 
ment of the body ; much less can we endure privation of 
the word of God; for ' man shall not live by bread alone, 
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of 
God.'"* 

Upon this, Charles the Fifth sent a herald through the 
city to proclaim with a trumpet that no minister would 
be suffered to preach any more without special permis- 
sion from the emperor. " Thus," as the Elector of 
Saxony wrote to Luther, " our Lord God is command- 
ed to be silent at the Imperial Diet of Augsburg !" Hap- 
py is the Church, when all, from the greatest to the least, 
know the value of the pure and faithful preaching of the 
Gospel of Christ ! " More to be desired is it than gold, 
yea, than much fine gold ; sweeter also than honey and 
the honey-comb."f 

At length, on the 20th of June, the Diet was solemnly 
opened. The introductory speech displayed the hostile 
intentions of Charles. The war was declared. It was 
necessary to " be strong in the Lord, and in the power 
of His might, to be able to withstand in the evil day, 
and having done all, to stand. "J On leaving the as- 
sembly, the Elector of Saxony invited all the princes, 
his brothers in the faith, to meet at his lodgings, and 
there he exhorted them to stand boldly in the cause, 
which was the cause of God, and faith in Jesus Christ. 
On the following day, early in the morning, he com- 
manded all his counselors and servants to withdraw; 
and the pious prince spent the whole day in his cham- 
ber, seeking consolation and courage in reading the 

* Matt., iv., 4. f Psalm xix., 10. % Eph., vi., 10, 13. 



THE CONFESSION OF THE NAME OF CHRIST. 179 

Psalms of David, and beseeching God to grant him His 
assistance and His grace, that the glory of His Gospel 
might be made manifest. The Protestants obtained 
permission to read their Confession in public on the 24th 
of June ; but on that day other business engaged the 
attention of the Diet. They were required to give 
their Confession in writing ; but they insisted on reading 
it in the presence of the assembly. The emperor 
granted their request ; and all impatiently awaited the 
morrow, which, it seemed, was to decide the fate of the 
invincible Truth. 

Meanwhile Luther, at Coburg, was putting on the 
whole armor of God ; he was constantly singing the 
praises of the Lord and reading His word, full of cour- 
age, hope, and joy. Not a day passed by in which he 
did not spend at least three hours in prayer. He ad- 
dressed God as his Father; so we are informed by his 
servant. One day he was heard praying in his closet 
in these words : " I know that Thou art our merciful 
God and Father; wherefore I am certain that Thou 
wilt destroy the persecutors of Thy children. If Thou 
dost not, the danger concerns Thee as well as us. The 
whole matter is in Thy hands ; we have done our duty ; 
wherefore, O holy Father, Thou wilt protect us 1" 

" Were I in the situation of our friends," he once said 
to his faithful servant,* " I would have answered our 
adversaries, 'If your emperor can not consent to have 
the empire divided, our Emperor, the Lord, can not 
consent to have the name of God blasphemed. So you 
may boast of your emperor, and we will boast of ours. 
We shall see who will gain the victory !'" 

The wise ? gentle, and timid Melanchthon, at Augs- 
burg, did not feel the same confidence that Luther felt ; 
he was full of fear and anguish. His friend Camerarius 

* Veit Dieterich, 



180 XHSCGURSES AND ESSAYS. 

frequently saw him shed bitter tears. Luther, full of 
assurance, endeavored to inspire his friends at Augsburg 
with the same courage. He wrote to Jonas from his 
desert (for thus he dated his letters written from Co- 
burg) : " It is philosophy, and nothing else, that troubles 
Philip ; for our cause is in the hands of One who can 
say with truth, ' No man shall pluck them out of my 
hand.'* I do not wish that it were in our hands. I 
have had many affairs in my own hands, and none of 
them have been successful ; but all those which I in- 
trusted to Him have succeeded perfectly ; for it is true 
that the Lord is our Refuge and our Strength. Whom 
has He ever forsaken that trusted in Him? as it is 
written, ' Thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek 
Thee.'f Let us, then, bid defiance to our adversaries, 
and let us be bold in the Lord Jesus ; for, ' because He 
liveth, we shall live also,' J even in death ; and He will 
preserve the wife and the children of the man who shall 
have confessed His name at the cost of his life. Since 
He reigns, * we shall also reign with Him ;'§ even 
now already we reign with Him ! Oh ! if my presence 
was required at Augsburg, how soon, by the grace of 
Christ, would I be there ! God be with you !" 

He afterward wrote to Melanchthon : " Grace be unto 
you, and peace, in Christ. In Christ, I say, and not in 
the world. Amen ! Why art thou constantly troubled ? 
If our cause be not just, let us abandon it ; but if it be 
just, why should we make God a liar when He tells us 
to be contented, and ' of good cheer ?'|| ' Cast thy bur- 
den upon the Lord,'^[ He says. And again : ' The Lord 
is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart.'** You 
are concerned about the issue of this matter, because 

* John, x., 28. f Psalm ix., 10. % John, xiv., 19. 

% 2 Tim., ii., 12. || John, xvi., 33. T Psalm lv., 22. 

** Ibid., xxxiv., 18. 



THE CONFESSION OF THE NAME OF CHRIST. 181 

you can not conceive what it will be. But I tell you 
that if I could guess that issue, I would not meddle 
with it, and still less would I be willing to have under- 
taken the affair. God has put our cause in a place 
which you will not find by means of your rhetoric or 
your philosophy. That place is called faith ; and 
there are all those things which we can neither see nor 
understand. The man who endeavors, as you are 
doing, to see and understand these things, is rewarded 
by tears and anguish of heart. 

" If Christ be not with us, where in the universe shall 
we find Him ? If we are not the Church, where is the 
Church ? Is it the Duke, # or Rome, or the Turk and 
his fellows ? If we have not the word of God, who has 
it ? And ' if God be for us, who can be against us !'f If 
we fall, Christ falls with us, and Christ is the Lord of 
the earth ! Christ has said, ' Be of good cheer, I have 
overcome the world ;' J and I know that this is true. And 
why, then, should we fear the world when it is over- 
come as though it were the conqueror? O precious 
word ! many would go on their knees to Rome or Jeru- 
salem to get it ; and we, because we have it, and can 
at all times make use of it, esteem it lightly ! This is 
wrong. I know that it proceeds from the weakness of 
our faith. Let us then, pray, with the Apostles : * Lord ! 
increase our faith !' " " Though a host should encamp 
against me, my heart shall not fear."§ " No weapon 
that is formed against thee shall prosper, saith the Lord."|| 

The 25th of June, 1530, that day of triumph for the 
Church, came at last. At three o'clock in the afternoon, 
three centuries ago to-day, all the electors and repre- 
sentatives of states in the empire assembled at the pal- 
ace in which the emperor was residing, and in the 

* Of Bavaria. | Rom., viii., 31. J John, xvi., 33. 

$ Psalm xxvii., 3. || Isaiah, liv., 17. 

Q 



182 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

chapel of which the Confession was to be read, to avoid 
the concourse of the people. The emperor command- 
ed that the princes and electors alone should be admit- 
ted ; but the court of the palace was soon filled by a 
great multitude. The two chancellors of the Elector of 
Saxony, strengthened by the arm of the Lord which 
was stretched above them, advanced into the middle of 
the chapel, holding in their hands the Confession, one 
copy of which was written in Latin and the other in 
German. The Elector expressed a wish that, since they 
were in Germany, the emperor would permit the Con- 
fession to be read in German. To this he consented. 
Then one of the chancellors delivered a short discourse 
in the name of the Protestant states ; after which the 
other began to read the Confession in a loud voice, so 
that the immense crowd assembled in the court of the 
palace could hear every word. This occupied two 
hours. It was listened to with the deepest silence, and 
produced a most powerful impression. No one had ex- 
pected to hear such things. We will not repeat this 
Confession to you, my hearers ; but there are a few 
principal points which are worthy of being called to 
mind in these days, in which many have forgotten "the 
faith which was once delivered unto the saints."* 

" We confess and teach," said the Evangelical princes 
of Germany in the presence of that assembly of kings 
who listened attentively, " that there is but one God, and 
that in that only Being there are three Persons, God the 
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, a Di- 
vine and eternal Essence, of infinite power, wisdom, and 
goodness, the Creator and Preserver of all things visible 
and invisible. 

" We confess and teach, that since Adam's fall all men 
are naturally born in sin ; that is, from their mother's 

* Jude, 3, 



THE CONFESSION OP THE NAME OF CHRIST. 183 

womb they are full of evil lusts and inclinations, and 
can by nature possess no true piety, no real love to God, 
no sincere faith in God. We teach, that this innate sin is 
real sin, which condemns unalterably, and punishes with 
eternal death all those who are not regenerated by bap- 
tism and the Holy Ghost. 

" We confess and teach, that God the Son became 
man ; that He intimately united the two natures, human 
and divine, in one person, namely, Christ, who is true 
man and true God, and who, being really born, cruci- 
fied, dead and buried, was a sacrifice, not only for the 
inborn sins of man, but likewise for all other sins, and 
thus appeased the wrath of God. 

" We confess and teach, that Christ, having descended 
into hell, arose from the dead on the third dajr, ascend- 
ed into heaven, sat down on the right hand of God, and 
reigns and rules eternally over all creatures; that He 
sanctifies by His Holy Spirit all who believe on Him ; 
that He purifies, strengthens, and consoles them ; that 
He gives them life and all kinds of mercies and bless- 
ings, and protects and defends them against sin and the 
devil. 

" We confess and teach, that, since men are born in 
sin, do not fulfill the law of God, and can not by nature 
love God, we can not deserve the forgiveness of our 
sins by our works or by any mode of satisfaction, and 
are not justified before God on account of our works, 
but by the love of Christ, through grace, by means of 
faith, in consequence of which our conscience is consol- 
ed by the promises of Christ, and believes that remis- 
sion of sins is truly acquired for it ; that God is favora- 
ble to us and gives us eternal life through Christ, who, 
by His death, has reconciled us unto God. 

" We confess and teach, that such faith must bear 
good fruits and produce good works ; that we ought to 



184 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

perform all the good works which God has required for 
the love of God, but without trusting in them to be jus- 
tified ; for when we shall have done all those things 
which are commanded us, we shall still have to say, 
1 We are unprofitable servants.'* 

"This," added the Chancellor of Saxony, before pro- 
ceeding to enumerate the abuses of the Church of Rome, 
" is the summary of the doctrine preached in our church- 
es for the instruction and consolation of consciences, as 
well as for the sanctification of believers."f 

Having concluded the reading of this memorable doc- 
ument, the electoral chancellor approached the imperial 
secretary to hand to him the two copies of the Confess- 
ion. But the emperor, who had not lost sight of them, 
reached forth his hand and took them himself. Then 
the representatives of the Protestant states thanked 
Charles, Ferdinand, and all the other princes for their 
attention. Thus a solemn act was ended. The adver- 
saries, and several bishops even, were struck with the 
admirable exposition of the Christian Faith which they 
had just heard ; and who knows but that the impression 
made by it upon Charles may have been revived in the 
convent of St. Just, and have afforded him ineffable con- 
solation on his dying bed ! 

Copies of the Confession were soon sent to all the 
courts of Europe, and the knowledge of the Evangelical 
Faith was thus spread with the seed of the Truth to the 
most distant countries. As for the heroes of the Faith 
who had just confessed Christ and Him crucified so 
boldly, they were animated by a new sentiment, which, 
from that memorable hour, filled their hearts. They 
had confessed Christ before men ; and their hearts felt 

* Luke, xvii., 10. 

t See the same truths proclaimed in the Confession of Faith of the Re- 
formed Churches of France, articles 1, 6, 9, 10, 11, 13-18, 22, 



THE CONFESSION OF THE NAME OF CHRIST. 185 

that He would confess them also before His Father 
which is in heaven. " The Spirit of glory and of God 
rested upon them."* They had overcome ; they had 
put to flight all the armies of the enemy; there was 
" everlasting joy upon their heads."f From that day 
the destiny of the Evangelical Faith was insured, and 
the Lord again declared to it : " The gates of hell shall 
not prevail against thee."J 



Such was the confession of the name of Christ in the 
sixteenth century. Shall not that glorious name be 
confessed, in the nineteenth, with the same courage and 
fidelity ? O my brethren ! shall the adversaries of the 
name of Jesus, who could not prevail against it in that 
day, conquer in our times, and shall the voices of Christ- 
ians be silenced now ? That very voice of the Son of 
God, which was heard by the heroes of the Faith who 
have carried off the palms of victory by their faithful- 
ness and courage during three centuries, still addresses 
His people in our days, saying, " Whosoever shall con- 
fess me before men, him will I confess also before my 
Father which is in heaven." 

But can not all men confess the name of Jesus 
Christ in our days ? Those who confess Him must first 
know Him ; and all do not know Him. The day which 
we commemorate shows us two distinct classes of men; 
and Jesus, in the text of this discourse, declares that 
there are those who confess Him, and others who deny 
Him. There is, then, a great distinction, a great sepa- 
ration among men ; this is the first truth derived from 
the picture which we have laid before your eyes. This 
separation, which existed in the times of the apostles, 
existed also in the days of the Reformation, when those 

* 1 Peter, iv., 14. f Isaiah, xxxv., 10. t Matt., xvi., 18. 

Q 2 



186 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

were seen, on the one hand, who made that noble pro- 
fession of the Truth, and, on the other, those who de- 
sired to destroy it ; and it exists now also. We do not 
now allude to the distinction which various external 
communities establish, " for God is no respecter of per- 
sons ;"* but we speak of that distinction which is found 
in every nation, in every external denomination, be- 
tween those who confess and those who reject that un- 
changeable Truth which the apostles and reformers 
professed. It is an axiom, the truth of which has al- 
ways been acknowledged, and which every form of phi- 
losophy, even, has proclaimed, that as there is a distinction 
between good and evil, so there must also necessarily 
be, on earth, a distinction between the good and the evil, 
the just and the unjust, the saint and the sinner ; or, as 
the word of God forcibly says, " the children of God, 
and the children of the devil."f Christianity only sep- 
arates these two classes, and declares that this classifi- 
cation exists in the eyes of God, and that all men will 
receive, their recompense in accordance with it. " Who- 
soever shall confess me, him will I confess ; whosoever 
shall deny me, him will I deny." And the Savior of 
the world Himself, who is the Truth, says, with regard 
to the relative extent of each of these classes, of whom 
both Scripture and the event which we commemorate 
to-day remind us : " Enter ye in at the strait gate ; for 
wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to 
destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 
because, strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, 
which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."J 
These words were true three centuries ago in the town 
of Augsburg ; and they are still true in every part of 
the world. Thus, if there be now, as there was in the 
days of the apostles and reformers, a doctrine which is 

* Acts, x., 34. t 1 John, iii., 10. t Matt., vii., 13, 14. 



THE CONFESSION OF THE NAME OF CHRIST. 187 

rejected in the world, in society, among the lovers of 
riches, of glory, and of the pleasures of the age ; a doc- 
trine which men refuse to embrace, which they deem 
extraordinary, which is left to a small number of per- 
sons, it is probably a proof that that doctrine is the 
Truth. Thus, if there is a mode of life which is thought 
severe, exaggerated, contrary to the customs and tastes 
of a great many people, which none of them will re- 
ceive, and which is adopted by a small minority, it is 
probably a proof that that course of life is the true one. 
Thus, if there is a form of Christianity against w T hich 
men defend themselves, which is rejected by all who 
are wise in their own conceit, and who seek the glory 
of men and not the glory of God, it is to be presumed 
that that form is in harmony with the Gospel. And if 
I am on the side of the multitude, if I do as the world 
does, if I think as the world thinks, if I walk as the 
world walks, I have reason to tremble ; for it is a proof 
that I am in the broad way leading to destruction. 
" There are few that be saved," says an inspired writer. 
" One of a city, and two of a family," says another. O 
my soul ! thou art either with God, or far from Him ! 
Thou art either converted, or thou art not ! Thou dost 
either confess Christ, or deny Him ! Thou hast entered 
into one of those ways ; which is it? Is it the narrow 
way of life ? Is it the broad way of death ? Dost thou 
confess Christ, or deny Him ? O my soul ! this is wor- 
thy of thine attention ! Examine, prove, search, and 
find out distinctly what thou art ! " Examine yourselves, 
whether ye be in the faith."* 

My dear hearer, you whose conscience tells you now, 
" Thou dost not confess Christ ! thou dost not know 
Him ! thou art still in the broad way !" why will you 
not now be saved ? Why will you not to-day turn into 

* 2 Cor., xiii., 5. 



188 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

that way of life, in which are the " fellow-citizens with 
the saints," and the confessors of Jesus Christ? There 
is but one thing that deters you: it is your want of 
faith in the powerful and saving name of Jesus. So 
long as you do not believe in that name, your sins will 
keep you away from God, and it is impossible for you 
to confess a name of the glory of which you are igno- 
rant. But believe in that word, that eternal word, in 
comparison with which all is darkness and error, and 
which says to you, " Christ, being the brightness of the 
glory (of God) and the express image of His person, 
and upholding all things by the word of His power, 
when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on 
the right hand of the Majesty on high."* Understand 
what the word of God here declares to you. Christ, 
not by an angel, or by any of the heavenly principali- 
ties which He had created, but by Himself purged the 
sins of all who believe on Him ; that is, He purified 
them, redeemed them, separated them, delivered them 
from all their sins, and made them as pure as though 
they had never committed any. At the very moment 
when Christ died on the Cross, having taken upon Him- 
self the sins of all, all the sins of His people, of all ages 
and nations, were blotted out. Can you suppose that 
Christ would have taken the trouble of Himself to purge 
the sins of His people, if a part of that stain which de- 
files them, and hinders them from seeing God, was still 
to remain ? If, to use a comparison which all will un- 
derstand, when a mother has washed the body of her 
child in pure water, and has said to it, Go, thou art 
clean, the child obeys, but, to make it certain, goes, as 
the Scripture says, " and beholds his natural face in a 
glass,"f he thereby insults his mother by supposing it 
possible for her to lie. And so Christ Himself, the Sav- 

* Heb., i., 3. t James, i., 23. 



THE CONFESSION OP THE NAME OF CHRIST. 189 

ior-God, says to the man who believes on Him, " Go, 
thou art clean ; I have by myself purged thy sins ; I 
have taken them all away ; ' he that believeth on the 
Son hath everlasting life.' " # And shall not we believe 
that eternal word of truth? Shall we suppose that 
Christ can lie ? My brother, do you truly believe that 
Jesus is the Savior? do you "believe Him in your 
heart, and confess Him with your mouth ?"f If you 
do, I declare unto you, in the name of the Eternal 
Word, " You are clean."J All your sins are forgiven. 
You have found grace with the everlasting God. " There 
is now no condemnation unto you."§ " You were in 
time past not a people, but are now the people of God ; 
which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained 
mercy . w || Hearken, then, to the voice of the Lord : 
He calls on you to forsake the standard of error, and 
follow the standard of truth. Leave the camp of its 
enemies ; enter into the camp of its friends and its chil- 
dren. Unite with its prophets, with its apostles, with 
those glorious princes and teachers who once confessed 
its name so gloriously. There is not one of you but 
can do it, and that immediately ; the door is open now; 
it is open to all. O, why prefer the stained and worth- 
less banners of unrighteousness and infidelity to the 
pure and immortal standard of Christ? Behold, "the 
fashion of this world passeth away ;"^[ already its great- 
ness trembles, and must soon be destroyed. What will 
remain for you ? " Come out from among them, and 
be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the un- 
clean thing ; and I will receive you, and will be a Fa- 
ther unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, 
saith the Lord Almighty."** 

* John, iii., 36, + Rom., x., 9. J John, xiii., 10. 

§ Rom., viii, 1. || 1 Peter, ii, 10. f 1 Cor., m, 31, 

** 2 Cor., vi, 17, 18, 



190 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

But if you have known Jesus Christ, my beloved 
brethren, if your names have been enrolled in the army 
of the ever-living God, what a lesson the events of this 
day give you ! Soldiers of Christ, who fight under the 
eternal banner, who have known that He is the Savior: 
children of God, " strangers," as an apostle calls you, 
" scattered" throughout the world : hear what was said 
by a man who was poor and despised, and who " had 
not where to lay His head," but whom, by the majesty 
and authority of His language, you will recognize as 
" your Lord and your God :" " Whosoever shall confess 
me before men, him will I confess also before my Fa- 
ther which is in heaven." 

The confession of the name of Christ is, perhaps, even 
more necessary and more difficult in our days than it 
was in those of the Reformers. Then there was only 
one adversary — fanaticism, or superstition ; but God, 
whose will it is that all the enemies of the Church should 
display themselves, so that its victory may be the great- 
er, has suffered a new adversary, no less formidable, to 
rise out of the ages which followed those glorious days, 
viz., materialism, or infidelity. Its fatal atmosphere 
spreads every where, to every height, in the low places 
of the earth, in the institutions of learning, in the work- 
shop, in the country, in the bosom of the family, and 
has mingled its poison even with the fountains from 
which the nations are accustomed to draw life. Satan 
displays in our days the whole of his imposing army. 
With fanaticism on his left, and infidelity on his right, 
he attempts to pass over all the high places of the earth, 
and establish an uncontested empire over the whole 
world. Who will face him if you do not, O scattered 
children of God, who have the promise of your Head : 
" The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet 
shortly?"* Therefore we call you, at this celebration 

* Rom,, xvi., 20, 



THE CONFESSION OF THE NAME OF CHRIST. 191 

of a great victory, to one still more glorious. " Be of 
good courage," we say to you, as the captain of the ar- 
mies of Israel once said, on the day of a great battle 
against the children of Ammon ; " and let us play the 
men for our people, and for the cities of our God ; and 
the Lord do that which seemeth Him good !"* 

Are not the events which are taking place around 
you suitable to arouse your courage ? If the enemy of 
God increases his forces, when did Christ, the Head of 
the Church, the Captain of your salvation, ever raise His 
standard higher ? The soldiers of the adversary were 
shouting tumultuously, " Crush them ! crush them !" but 
they themselves were crushed by the masses which 
they had raised to destroy the Being against whom they 
fought, and "the Lion of the Tribe of Judah"f has lain 
down triumphant on their ruins. Do you not see many 
countries where, a few years ago, there was not a single 
voice to confess the name of Jesus Christ, that are now 
filled with His glory? "There shall be a handful of 
corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains ; the 
fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon : and they of the 
city shall flourish like grass of the earth." J The distant 
isles awake and stretch out their arms to you ; a sound 
of life pervades the world, as though a man were gath- 
ering his followers together, and preparing them for the 
battle. " The people shall be willing in the day of His 
power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the 
morning : the Lord has the dew of the youth."§ 

Let us fight, therefore, O children of God ! and let us 
fight by the confession of the name of Jesus. Beloved 
brethren! having been saved by Jesus, it is our duty, as 
well as our great joy and glory, to be faithful to Him 
and to confess Him openly before men. It is true that 
you are not called to make as solemn a confession as 

* 2 Sam., x., 12. f Rev., v., 5. t Ps. l»ii„ 16. $ Ps. ex., 3, 



192 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

that on which we have been meditating to-day ; per- 
haps the trumpet does not call you to a pitched battle ; 
but each of you must confess the Lord in the peculiar 
situation in which God has placed him. There is an 
essential difference between the two epochs which we 
are contemplating. At the epoch of the Reformation, 
a few great names appear, which seem alone to fill the 
whole battle-field. In our days, the armies of the liv- 
ing God have no head on earth ; all names are lost in a 
blessed obscurity. One Captain arises in our midst : it 
is Jesus Christ. O my brethren, let us feel how great 
is the responsibility under which this fact places us ! 
You can not now rely on a few illustrious chiefs ; each 
must fight at his post, as though the victory depended 
on him alone. It is not, perhaps, by great battles, but 
by a thousand struggles of individuals, that the King of 
Zion will establish His kingdom. To each of you is in- 
trusted a part of its destiny. " God hath chosen the 
foolish things of the world to confound the wise ; and 
God hath chosen the weak things of the world to con- 
found the things which are mighty ; and base things of 
the world, and things which are despised, hath God 
chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught 
things that are : that no flesh should glory in His pres- 
ence."* If Christ has placed you in cottages, confess 
Him in cottages. If He has placed you in the houses 
of the rich men of the earth, confess Him in the midst 
of abundance and prosperity. If He has placed you in 
the sanctuary, speak boldly there. If He has placed 
you in the seat of the powerful, confess Him at the very 
steps of the throne, as the princes of the earth once did 
in the palace of the king. Do not neglect a single oc- 
casion to confess Jesus faithfully in the midst of your 
families, in your conversation, in your vocation : " Sanc- 

* 1 Cor., i., 27-29, 



THE CONFESSION OF THE NAME OF CHRIST. 193 

tify the Lord in your hearts : and be ready always to 
give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason 
of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear."* 
This is all that Christ requires of you in fighting for 
Him. This is your armor in this glorious battle. His 
name alone, without any human aid, gains wonderful 
victories ; His name alone overthrows the kingdom of 
darkness, and drives the powers of darkness away. 
" God hath given Him a name which is above every 
name : that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, 
of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things un- 
der the earth."f 

Disciples of Christ ! the truths by means of which you 
ought to obtain the victory over the world, and bring 
many souls captive to God the Savior, are the same 
as those which those Apostles, and those Reformers 
and illustrious princes, confessed, who were once, as it 
were, the arm of the Lord. Men change, but " Jesus 
Christ is the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever." J 
That Christ whom Paul, Peter, and John confessed, 
whom Luther, Calvin, and Beza confessed, that Christ 
you must proclaim. You must say, as they said, " We 
are by nature sinners and condemned." You must say, 
as they said, " We are saved through grace alone, by 
Christ, through faith." You must say, as they said, 
" We must become new creatures before we can see 
the kingdom of God." Give your testimony with sim- 
plicity and gentleness to all the truths contained in the 
word of God, which is the testimony of God Himself; 
this is confessing Jesus Christ. It is no doctrine in- 
vented yesterday, but the eternal Truth, that you are to 
confess. Human systems of doctrine have always been 
changing ; and at present no two of them agree ; but 
the Truth of God is always the same. You may be 

* 1 Peter, iii., 15. f Phil., ii., 9, 10. % Heb., xiii., 8. 

R 



194 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS, 

certain that Christ will be to the world, as He was m 
the days of the Gospel and of the Reformation, " an un- 
known God."* Some will say, " These are old and 
superannuated doctrines ;" others will say, " These are 
strange novelties !" Yes, the Truth which you proclaim 
is always old, for it existed in the counsel of God before 
the creation of the world. Yes, that Truth is always 
novel, for every time it is manifested in the heart of the 
sinner, he begins to see things of which he had no con- 
ception. Be not disturbed by vain clamor. Ever old, 
and ever new, that Truth has already saved and renew- 
ed the world twice ; it has given proof of its authentici- 
ty. Let us stand firm ; it will yet a third time save it, 
and that, we trust, forever. " I know that my Redeem- 
er liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon 

the earth."t 

Go on, therefore, soldiers of the Lord of hosts, and 
fight manfully. In these days we need resolution, 
strength, devotion, and entire self-renunciation ; for if 
the weapons which the world uses are more subtle than 
they were in the days of the Apostles and Reformers, 
they are the more to be feared. The coldness and 
contempt of those who surround us, sometimes of our 
dearest friends, are names which scorch our hearts still 
more grievously than those of the stake of the adversa- 
ry ; and the respect of men, the fear or the love of the 
world, have made more persons unfaithful than the 
sword of the executioner has. Therefore be strong, be 
of good cheer, and fix your eyes on the certain triumph 
which awaits the cause of God. The Chief whose 
steps you follow has already overcome all His enemies. 
" Having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a 
show of them openly, triumphing over them in the 
cross."J The conversion and subjection of the whole 

* Acts, xvii., 23. t Job, xk., 25. t Col., ii., 15. 



THE CONFESSION OF THE NAME OF CHRIST. 195 

world is promised unto Him. " I have set my King 
upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree," 
saith the Lord. " The Lord hath said unto me, Thou 
art my son ; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, 
and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, 
and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession."* 
Already is the King of the universe preparing all things 
for the accomplishment of this promise. Already " the 
Gentiles seek the Root of Jesse, which stands for an en- 
sign of the people."! Already "the Lord sets His 
hand again the second time to recover the remnant of 
His people."J Already, in the midst of our degenerate 
churches, the Lord is gathering unto Himself from all 
sides a " willing people ;"§ and " the bright and Morn- 
ing Star"|| is rising above the earth, weary of the long 
and tedious night. Soldiers of Jesus Christ ! fight, then, 
with joy and courage, knowing that the cause in which 
you are engaged is the cause of God Himself, and that 
He prepared its triumph even before the creation ; let 
your hearts be filled with sacred courage ; be energetic 
and vigorous, for " God hath not given us the spirit of 
fear, but of power ; ,,q ft and "he that overcometh," saith 
the Lord, " shall inherit all things ; but the fearful shall 
have their part in the second death."** Believe and 
hope, if need be, against hope; for "through faith," 
says Paul, men have " subdued kingdoms, obtained 
promises, stopped the mouths of lions."ff 

Nevertheless, my dear brethren, remember that the 
battle to which you are called is one of eternal charity. 
It is not by bitter zeal that we shall hasten the kingdom 
of God. What is to be your object ? Is it not to be 
instruments in the hand of God for the salvation of souls? 

* Ps. ii., 6, 8. t Isai., xi., 10. t Isai., xi., 11. 

$ Ps. ex., 3. 11 Rev., xxii., 16. f 2 Tim., i., 7. 

** Rev., xxi., 7, 8. ft Heb., xi., 33. 



196 



DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 



And how will you save souls unless you love them? 
Remember how Christ, your Head, in whose steps you 
ought to walk, appeared on earth. He appeared 
love, and it is by love that He overcame the world, a* 
saved His people. " When He saw the multitudes 
around Him, " He was moved with compassion on them, 
because they were scattered abroad, as sheep having 
no shepherd."* "He went about doing good."f Oh! if 
there were more charity in our hearts, how much more 
glorious would be the victories we would obtain over 
the prince of this world, and how many more " souls 
saved from death"J we would see ! Let us, then, my 
brethren, love souls as God has loved them, and let that 
love animate and fill our souls ! Let us beware of cry- 
ing peace ! peace ! when there is no peace. But let us 
also beware of narrow-mindedness, of bitterness, of dis- 
putes, of a spirit of dominion and condemnation. Let 
us beware of abounding in the sense in which some un- 
derstand it ; but let us abound and superabound in the 
sense in which the Lord, who is love, understands it ; 
let truth be, as it were, the body of the soldier of Christ, 
and love the robe that covers him ; " for God hath not 
given us the spirit of fear, but of love."§ 

And, finally, let us remember that, in the confession of 
the name of Christ, the battle which we are fighting is 
one of sovereign wisdom. It is not by precipitation or 
by carnal zeal that we shall hasten the kingdom of the 
Lord. This is sometimes the idea of those " novices, 
lifted up with pride,"|| of whom the apostle speaks ; and 
for that reason he is unwilling that they should be bish- 
ops in the Church of the Lord. What an example did 
our illustrious predecessors give us three centuries ago ! 
Let us be distrustful of ourselves. Whenever we go 

* Matt., ix., 36. f Acts, x., 38. J James, v., 20. 

$ 2 Tim., i., 7. II 1 Tim., iii., 6. 



THE CONFESSION OF THE NAME OF CHRIST. 197 

forward in our own strength, in our own zeal, in our 
own wisdom, we do injury to God's cause. Let us 
consult the Lord before we act. Let us often wait ; 
the servant of God should know how to wait. Let us 
judge with wisdom ; let us always choose the noblest 
end, and use the best and most prudent means of at- 
taining it. Let us not " fall into the condemnation of 
the devil."* Let us have " the wisdom that is from 
above, which is not earthly, sensual, devilish, but is first 
pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, 
full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and 
without hypocrisy ;"f " for," says the apostle of the 
Gentiles, " God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but 
of a sound mind"X 

Ministers of the word of God, who are doubly my 
brethren ! to you and to myself I would now address 
the word of exhortation : may we all be found faithful 
in that sacred battle of eternal love to which we are 
called ! Brethren, let us pray ! let us pray much for 
ourselves ; let us pray much for others ! Let us gird 
ourselves with truth, and with charity ; let us " hold fast 
the form of sound words which we have heard ;"§ let 
us courageously proclaim the counsel of God ; let us 
clearly and truly announce His whole counsel ; " for," 
as the Scripture says, " if the trumpet give an uncer- 
tain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle ?"|| 
" Watchmen of Zion ! let us blow the trumpet" when 
we " see the sword come," lest " the people be not warn- 
ed, and the sword take any person from among them." 8 !! 
Shepherds of the flocks of the Lord ! let us feed them 
on the fruit of that " plant of renown raised up for them, 
that they be no more consumed with hunger in the 
land."** Let us " be instant in season, out of season, re- 

* 1 Tim., iii., 6. t James, iii., 15, 17. t 2 Tim., i., 7. $ 2 Tim., 1, 13, 
|j 1 Cor., xiv„ 8. 1F Ezek., xxxiii., 6. ** Ezek., xxxiv=, 29. 

R 2 



198 DISCOURSES- AND ESSAYS. 

prove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doc- 
trine."* " In doing this, we shall both save ourselves and 
them that hear us."f 

Elders in our Churches, who are called to labor with 
us ; and you, great men of the earth ! follow the exam- 
ple of those illustrious and generous princes whose faith- 
fulness and glory you have been recalling to mind ! 
Learn of them that the doctrine of the Truth is not the 
exclusive property of the ministers of the sanctuary, but 
that it is yours as well as ours, and that you are called, 
as we are, to defend it. " Be not ashamed of the testi- 
mony of our Lord ;"J but, like that assembly of princes, 
confess Christ before the world. And as they were the 
firm support of the ministers of the word of God, grant us 
also on every occasion your affection, your prayers, and 
your assistance. Let us unite in defending the doctrine 
of the Truth which God has intrusted to our churches. 
Let us esteem the gift of a faithful minister a great priv- 
ilege. " We beseech you, brethren," says St. Paul, " to 
know them which labor among you, and are over you 
in the Lord, and admonish you ; and to esteem them 
very highly in love for their work's sake. And be at 
peace among yourselves."§ 

And you, disciples of Christ, of every age, of every 
rank and sex, " walk worthy of the vocation wherewith 
ye are called !"|| Confess Christ by your words with 
all humility and modesty ; but especially confess Him 
by your lives. " Comfort the feeble-minded, support 
the weak, be patient toward all men.^I If your enemy 
hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give him drink. ## Follow 
that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all 
men.ft Rejoice evermore.JJ Show forth the praises of 

* 2 Tim., v., 13, 14. f 1 Tim., iv., 16. % 2 Tim., i., 8. 

§ 1 Thess., v., 12, 13. || Eph., iv., 1. ^ 1 Thess., v., 14. 

** Rom.,xii., 20. ft 1 Thess., v., 15. tt 1 Thess., v., 16. 



THE CONFESSION OF THE NAME OF CHRIST. 199 

Him who hath called you out of darkness into His mar- 
velous light.* Let your light so shine before men, that 
they may see your good works, and glorify your Father 
which is in heaven."f 

And soon the promise of the Lord to you will be glo- 
riously fulfilled. He will come ; He will appear sur- 
rounded by His holy angels. He will say to you, 
"Come, my brother! come, my sister! fear not! thou 
didst confess me before men ; I will confess thee before 
my Father which is in heaven. Father I he is mine ; 
he is my ransomed one ; he is my friend ; he is my 
brother ! He has made a covenant with me by sacri- 
fice. J He has confessed me in the midst of the reproach 
of the world ; I will confess him in Thy glory. ' Give 
him a white stone, and write upon him the name of my 
God.'§ ' Lift up your heads, O ye gates f|| ' Enter 
thou into the joy of thy Lord !' "1 

* 1 Peter, ii,, 9. f Matt., v., 16. % Psalm 1., 5. 

§ Rev., ii,, 17; iii, 12. J| Psalm xxiv., 7. «fF Matt., xxv., 23. 



200 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS, 



X. LUTHERANISM AND CALVINISM. 

THEIR DIVERSITY ESSENTIAL TO THEIR UNITY. 

AN ESSAY.* 

41 Each of these religions deems itself the most perfect : Calvinism be- 
lieves itself to be most conformed to what Jesus Christ has said ; and 
Lutheranism to what the Apostles have done." — Montesquieu, Esprit des 
Lois, book xxiv., chap. 5, 

The times are pressing. It is becoming necessary to 
aim at the useful ; not to be involved in useless discus- 
sions, but to seek, according to the apostolic precept,, 
that which will truly contribute to the edification of the 
Church. This thought has determined me to lay before 
you the following question : 

What in our Reformed French churches has charac- 
terized the past year ? 

It is, if I mistake not, a new manifestation of princi- 
ples which have frequently been designated by the 
names of parties opposed to us, but which we desire to 
mention only in terms of kindness ; and for this reason 
we will call them (using a name dear to us) the princi- 
ples of Lutheranism. 

Lutheranism and the Reformf possess distinct char- 
acters, but they are not separated so much by errors as 
by diversities. God has chosen that this diversity should 

* This essay, originally in the form of a discourse, was read before the 
Evangelical Society of Geneva, at its Anniversary in 1844. 

It is thought best to add, that much of what is said of Lutheranism in thi& 
discourse is applicable only to that of Europe, and can not be said of that of 
this country. — Trans. 

t The reader must remember that the author uses the term Reformation to. 
designate the grand work of the sixteenth century in general, while the 
word Reform is employed when the wcrk of Zwingle and Calvin is espe- 
cially referred to. — Trans.. 



LUTHERANISM AND CALVINISM. 201 

exist, that in the end the Reformation might be complete. 
Having in the beginning proposed to make immense 
bodies move around the sun, His powerful hand im- 
pressed them with two contrary forces ; the one tend- 
ing to drive them from the center, the other to attract 
them toward it. It is from these apparent contradic- 
tions that the motion of the universe and the admirable 
unity of the heavenly system result. So it was in the 
days of the Reformation. Opposite tendencies were 
necessary for this work, and these very tendencies en- 
hance its admirable unity. 

" In the garden of my master 
There are many kinds of flowers."* 

So wrote a Christian author.f Shall we then look 
for one blossom only ? Ah ! let us not, like unskillful 
gardeners, tear up those indigenous plants, the culture 
of which is suited particularly to our soil and climate, 
and supply their place with exotics, which require other 
soil, and which would perish in our hands. 

Yes, let us understand this well : there is not only 
friendship and harmony between Lutheranism and the 
Reform ; there is more than this — there is unity. 

First, they possess that thorough unity which results 
from the same living faith animating both. They believe 
alike in man's entire inability to do good ; they believe 
in God manifest in the flesh ; in atonement by His blood, 
and regeneration by His Spirit, in justification by faith 
in His name, in charity, and in good works by virtue 
of their communion with Him. But it is not of this unity 
of identity that we wish to speak at present. We go 
much farther : we intend to show that Lutheranism and 
the Reform are one, in their very diversities ; whence 

* " Dans le jardin de mon maitre 
II est toutes sortes de fleurs." 
t Tersteegen. 



202 DISCOURSES AXD ESSAYS. 

we infer that, instead of being effaced, most of these di- 
versities — and especially those relating to the Reform 
which we have to defend — should be carefully preserv- 
ed. Such is our position. 

And those who, hearing us to-day, enumerate the char- 
acters, so different in themselves, that distinguish Luther- 
anism from the Reform, would fall into a grave error, 
should they exclaim with painful surprise, " What, then ! 
are not these so many friends the less, and so many en- 
emies the more ?" The body and the soul differ vastly 
in their respective attributes, yet they form but one be- 
ing. Man and woman have very opposite capacities 
and duties, yet are but one flesh. In Christ, humanity 
and divinity were certainly distinct, yet they together 
constitute but one Savior. So Lutheranism and the 
Reform, though very different, are yet in unity. 

Shall we speak of their strifes ? But is there never 
any strife between the body and the spirit ? between the 
husband and the wife? Was there not strife in Christ 
Himself, between His humanity and divinity? "My 
soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Father, 
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me/' cried His 
humanity, shuddering at the approach of the cross. 
Strife, indeed, but strife when overcome, far from being 
opposed to unity, is essential to it, at least on earth. 

I believe the time is now near at hand when the 
struggle shall be over, and the union of Lutheranism 
and the Reform will be triumphant, if the rash friends 
of the former do not endeavor to force the latter to 
submit to its laws. Bear in mind that the Reform, 
which is essentially the friend of proselytism, does not 
strive to make proselytes within the pale of Lutheran- 
ism ; it loves it ; it venerates it ; it leaves it to its own 
strength, or, rather, to that of its God. But, strange to 
say, Lutheranism (certainly not that of Germany, nor 



LUTHKKAN1SM AND CALVINISM. 203 

of Geneva), Lutheranism, generally passive in its char- 
acter, advances heedlessly, seemingly desirous of taking 
from us our patrimony, and substituting itself for the 
three centuries' work of our Reformers. Is it indeed 
necessary, in order to effect unity, to destroy one of the 
two members ? This may be one method, but it is not 
ours. Lutheranism has important duties to discharge 
toward the Reform, and too well do we know the noble 
principles of the excellent men who, in Germany, are 
its true supporters, not to be, convinced that they will 
perform them well. 

If one of two friendly and allied armies has been 
beaten and dispersed by the common enemy while the 
other has remained in its camp, marshaled under its 
leaders and its standards, shall this latter seize that op- 
portunity to assert its supremacy, and impose upon the 
other its own colors? Will it not rather generously 
help them to recover the ancient standards of their fa- 
thers ? It is this that we now ask of Lutheranism. 

We need not assert that we have no prejudice against 
Martin Luther. If there exist in the history of the 
world a man whom we love above all others, it is he. 
We venerate Calvin ; we love Luther. Lutheranism 
itself is dear to us, and for weighty reasons. There 
are principles in the Reform which we would fear, if 
there existed not the counterpoise of Lutheranism ; as 
there are also in Lutheranism those which would alarm 
us, were it not for the counterpoise of the Reform. 
Luther and Lutheranism have not, even in Germany, 
not even at Wittemberg, more zealous friends and ad- 
mirers than ourselves. 

But if this question be proposed, Should the Reform 
in France, in Switzerland, or elsewhere, give way to 
Lutheranism ? We reply, without hesitation, Certainly 
not! 



204 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS, 

Now we think this is the question which, during the 
past year, has been brought before our churches. 

Have they at all times answered as they should have 
done ? We think not. The Reform is misunderstood, 
even among the Reformed themselves. Two centuries 
of persecution and humiliation have caused it to lose its 
finest traditions. Principles opposed to it find eloquent 
and pious advocates. Even within its bosom there are 
distinguished minds, which hesitate, and are irresolute 
at the moment of revival, and which, mistaking one 
voice for another, are ready to undergo a most won- 
derful transformation. One would say, judging from 
what is passing at the present day, that the Reform 
may organize societies, may exercise a certain external 
activity, but with regard to principles, Lutheranism 
alone must establish them, so that it only remains for 
us to place ourselves under its guardianship. Our 
standard, which is three centuries old, is called radical 
and innovating ; and colors rejected by ten generations 
begin to be raised up here and there, in this presbytery 
and in that church. Some communities, even, which 
are wholly Reformed, are ready to advocate it. There 
are countries covered with eloquent ruins, and strewed 
with the sepulchres of the saints, where such things are 
going on, and where, if they be not stopped, the very 
stones will cry out. 

We firmly believe that the Swiss and French of the 
Reformed Church have no need to ask directions of any 
foreign Church, particularly of one with which, it is 
true, the same faith and the same charity ought to unite 
them, but which does not know them, and which, we 
must say, has, though with many remarkable exceptions, 
been frequently wanting in justice and impartiality to- 
ward them. If the Reform is to live, it must possess a 
life peculiar to itself. It has in its own traditions an 



LUTHERANISM AND CALVINISM. 205 

abundance of most sublime inspirations, but, unfortunate- 
ly, it does not know how to appreciate them ; and in- 
stead of exploring the golden mine of its antiquity, 
doubtless with some trouble, and by the sweat of its 
brow, it prefers receiving with eagerness coin already 
stamped, but stamped with foreign arms. 

In order that the Reformed Church should preserve 
the principles God has intrusted to it, it must know them. 
What are they, then ? It is to this research that we ap- 
propriate this essay. We shall only lay before you 
truths acknowledged for three centuries past, but which 
seem, in our day, to be completely forgotten. 

A great mind, the genius of Montesquieu, perceived 
a fundamental difference between Lutheranism and the 
Reform, when he said, in his " Esprit des Lois :" " Each 
of these religions deems itself the most perfect : the Cal- 
vinistic deeming itself most conformed to what Jesus 
Christ has said, and the Lutheran to what the apostles 
have done." This language, undoubtedly, implies that 
the Reform has for its basis the word of God, while Lu- 
theranism has the acts and usages of the Church. This 
distinction is profound, and, generally speaking, contains 
much truth. 

But let us examine more minutely these differences, 
without, however, pretending to enumerate them all. 
Let us lay aside peculiarities of doctrine, and particular- 
ly that of the free and eternal grace of God, which is 
our most precious jewel. Let us not speak, at present, 
. of the election of the Father, nor of the manner in which 
humanity and divinity are united in the person of the 
God-man, nor of the nature of the Lord's Supper, nor 
of the doctrine of Baptism ; these are well-known pecu- 
liarities from which all others flow. Let us confine our- 
selves especially to questions relating to the Church; 

S 



206 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

which is daily becoming the greatest, and, so to speak, 
the all-engrossing subject. 

I. The Reformed Church lays down as the ground- 
work of Christianity the Scriptural principle, that the 
word of God is the positive rule, the absolute law, the sole 
source of faith, and of the Christian life; whereas Lu- 
ther lays down as the basis of his Reformation a prin- 
ciple not less to be venerated, but entirely different, 
namely, faith, or justification by faith. 

We think it was well that these two fundamental 
principles should have been established at the same time. 
In this particular, the combined action of Lutheranism 
and the Reform was admirable ; that of Lutheranism 
especially fills us with the deepest veneration. Not 
only did Luther and his friends set forth the capital doc- 
trine of justification in a manner still more explicit than 
did the Reform, but, had they not done so, we boldly 
assert that there would have been no Reformation. 
Why was not the great Reformation accomplished by 
the sects of the Middle Ages, which originated the prin- 
ciples of the Reform ? For several reasons, undoubted- 
ly, but principally because they were not fully impressed 
with the importance of this great idea, of which Luther, 
after St. Paul, was the most faithful promulgator. 

The Reformation, and, prior to it, nascent Christiani- 
ty, had two fundamental principles: that of the Reform, 
which was simple, and that of Lutheranism, which was 
material. The Reform required faith also ; Lutheran- 
ism, too, required the Bible. But each of these princi- 
ples was distinctively and specially intrusted to a faith- 
ful guardian. These were the two forces which were 
to urge on the new world created in the sixteenth cen- 
tury ; and herein we admire with gratitude the most 
perfect unity in the diversity of the work of God, 



LUTHERANISM AND CALVINISM. 207 

However, we w r ould not justify the consequences to 
which Luther carried his principles. Applying them to 
the word of God with a boldness which astonishes us, 
he declares, in the preface of his translation of the New 
Testament, that the Gospel of St. John, the Epistles of 
St. Paul, particularly that to the Romans, and the first 
Epistle of St. Peter, are the true marrow of the Scrip- 
tures, because they treat especially of faith ; he consid- 
ers the Gospels inferior to the Epistles ; lightly esteems 
the Revelation by St. John, and speaks of one of the 
Epistles (that of St. James) in terms so well known that 
I need not repeat them here. Rationalism, which shakes 
or revokes all the canonical writings, has appeared, and, 
as it seems to us, could only appear in the Church of 
Luther. 

The Swiss and French Reform could not be reproach- 
ed with this want of respect. On the contrary, in throw- 
ing off the authority of the Church, it had recourse to 
that sovereign authority, which the Church itself had 
always exalted, that of the Holy Scriptures. " Forsak- 
ing," says one of its leaders,* " the decrees of the Popes 
and the Fathers of the Church, I went to the very fount- 
ain head. My soul was there refreshed, and from that 
time I strongly maintained this principle : the Bible 
alone should be our guide, and all the additions of men 
be rejected." 

" The Church of Christ," said the pastors of Berne, in 
the famous dispute which decided the Reform of that 
Canton in 1528, " has made neither laws nor command- 
ments in addition to the word of God. This is the reas- 
on why all human traditions, called ecclesiastical, are 
obligatory only so far as they are contained and com- 
manded in this holy word." And in the seventeenth 
century, Chillingworth, an English Reformer of the 

* Wolfgang .Toner. 



208 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

Episcopal Church, chancellor of the diocese of Salisbury, 
all of whose opinions we should not uphold, but who, 
having been a Papist, understood well in what should 
consist the spirit of the Reform, uttered these sublime 
words : " The Bible, the whole Bible, nothing but the 
Bible, is the religion of the Reformed Church." Let us 
here remember, that the Church of England is a Reform- 
ed Church, and not Lutheran. It is such, not only by 
the name it bears, but by its admirable articles of faith, 
and especially by the testimony it therein renders to 
the word of God. 

This principle of the Reform is of even earlier date 
than the views of Luther ; for it was not only the prin- 
ciple of the primitive Church, of WicklifFe, of the Wal- 
denses, and of many other fervent Christians, but it 
was proclaimed in the very morning of the Reformation, 
in the year 1518, by Carlstadt, who says, in those theses 
which Dr. Eck so violently attacked, " We prefer the 
letter of the Bible, not only to one or many doctors of 
the Church, but even to the authority of the whole Church 
itself." 

Every thing in the Reformed Church reveals this 
grand principle of the exclusive authority of the word 
of God. While the Augsburg Confession is silent with 
regard to the sole authority of the Scriptures, all the 
Confessions of the Reformed Church are unanimous on 
this subject.* While the Lutherans uphold the Apoc- 
ryphal books, and frequently select from them texts for 
their sermons, the Reformed distinguish them from the 
canonical writings with scrupulous care, and, if neces- 
sary, contend earnestly for this distinction, as did the 
British and Foreign Bible Society not long since, excit- 

* Gallican Confession, Art. V. ; Confessio Belgica, Art. V. ; Confess. 
Helv., Art. I., II. ; Conf. Angl., Art. VI. ; Conf. Bohera., Art. I. ; Conf. of 
Westminster (of Scotland), Chap. I. 



LUTHERANISM AND CALVINISM. 209 

ed by the example of Scotland, that eminently Reform- 
ed country ; and they regard it as a matter of the high- 
est importance to define exactly the extent of the word 
of God, and carefully to exclude all human additions. 
While the text of the Lutheran Bibles does not distin- 
guish human from divine words, in all our translations 
of the Bible, on the contrary, the words not found in the 
original are printed in italics, in order that the reader 
may, as far as is possible in a translation, discern be- 
tween the word of God and the word of man. And it 
may be remarked that the translation of the New Test- 
ament published a few years since in Lausanne, which 
is purely and simply a fac simile of the original, has 
been prompted by the spirit of the Reform. We do not 
think that such a translation would have appeared among 
Lutherans. 

It is not true, however, as has been recently pretend- 
ed, that the Reform presents the Bible to us as a book 
all-sufficient in itself, whatever doctrine may be dedu- 
ced from it. " We are persuaded," says the Helvetic 
Confession, " that a solid knowledge of true religion de- 
pends on the internal enlightening of the Holy Spirit 
We only regard as real and orthodox those explanations 
which are drawn from Scripture itself in conformity 
with the analogy of faith and the law of charity." Nor 
is it true, as has been asserted, that the Reform possess- 
es no kind of tradition. There is not a century, not a 
generation, to whose voice the Reform is not ready to 
listen, and from which it is unwilling to derive instruc- 
tion. Only it places the great voice above all smaller 
voices, and, instead of judging of the import of Scripture 
by tradition, it judges, according to the principles of the 
Fathers, of the truth of traditions by the Scriptures. 
Such, then, is our first principle : 

S 2 



210 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

The Reform is pre-eminently the confession of the 
Bible. 

Never shall such man-worship be found among us, 
even of the men of God in the Church, as has been just- 
ly called elsewhere Lutherolatry. Never will there be 
seen among us such writings as have been published in 
Germany with these titles : Luther, a Prophet — The 
Second Moses — An Elias — A Star — A Sun. We have 
no other Prophet than Jesus Christ, and no other Sun 
than the Bible. And while, for a long space of time, all 
sorts of relics of Luther were preserved with a religious 
veneration, we hardly know where the great Calvin re- 
sided ; there is not even a small stone in our cemetery 
to mark the place where his ashes repose ; and four 
venerable trees, which were to be seen, five or six years 
ago, shading the ground where it is said the mortal re- 
mains of this great servant of God were laid, have been 
hewn down to make room ! . . . This is undoubtedly go- 
ing too far; but its import is striking : it reminds us that 
Calvin forbade that a monument should be erected to 
his memory, because he desired that the word of God 
alone should be honored in his Church. 

Yes, the Rock of the word of God is the foundation 
of the Reform ; we know of none other. Let other 
Churches boast of their ecclesiastical basis; we will boast 
only of our Bible foundation. And in this, we believe 
ourselves more truly ecclesiastical than those who min- 
gle with the Divine Rock the quicksands of human tra- 
dition. We will not forsake this our foundation for 
any price, not for the Pope, nor for Luther — what do I 
say ? not even for our Reformers themselves. Far dis- 
tant be the day when the Reformed Church shall glory 
in being called the Church of Calvin or Zwingle. The 
Bible — the Bible — the whole Bible — nothing but the 
Bible ! 



LUTHERANI3M AND CALVINISM. 211 

We asserted, at the outset, that the principle intrust- 
ed to the Lutheran Church was, in the days of the Ref- 
ormation, of at least equal importance with that which 
God intrusted to the Reformed Church. Which of the 
two is of most importance in our day? 

I dare not decide. But I will say, however, that the 
principle of the Bible appears to me, at present, at least 
as important as that of Faith. Which are the powerful 
adversaries called upon to fight the battle of the nine- 
teenth century? Evangelism and Ecclesiasticism. And 
by what means shall Ecclesiasticism be silenced, and 
those clouds of human traditions and human works 
which envelop it be dispelled ? By the Bible. 

If we hesitate on the importance of the principle of 
the Reform, shall we not be instructed by the cry which 
is now sounding on all sides : The Church ! The Church ! 
and would put the visible Church above the word of 
the Lord? Shall we not, by that proud pontiff who calls 
us sectaries of the Bible* and who, with " that audacious 
mouth which spake very great things," as says Daniel 
the prophet, has just uttered a cry from the depths of 
the magnificent chambers of his Vatican, and, stretching 
forth his arms in terror in the midst of his Apollos, his 
Venuses, and ail those trophies of Paganism by which 
he is surrounded, has rung throughout all Christendom 
that watchword of alarm and dread — the Bible ! the 
Bible ! What, then ! has He who reveals all secrets, 
" made known to him, in the silent watches of the night, 
what shall come to pass hereafter ?" Has He shown 
him the Bible at the gates of Italy ? Has He shown 
him already suspended in the air, overhanging Rome, 
"the stone that was cut out of the mountain without 
hands," that is to break in pieces the ancient statue, and 
lay it low in the dust, amid the ruin and devastatio; 

* Circular of the Pope, dated the day after the nones of May, 184- , 



212 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

twenty centuries ? Ah ! if there is a time when the 
Reform should remain faithful to its principles, it is the 
day in which we now live. To conquer by the Bible, 
or to perish, is the only alternative before us. 

One thing, among others, which alarms us concerning 
the state of England is, that recently (about a month 
since), in London, while the assemblies belonging to 
particular churches (Episcopal or dissenting) crowded 
the vast extent of Exeter Hall, for the first time the 
meeting of the Bible Society had comparatively but 
few present. It is not our intention to draw too serious 
consequences from this ; we know it may have arisen 
from various causes, but we confess that the knowledge 
of this fact caused us to shudder, and with sadness we 
recalled to mind these words, " Ichabod, Ichabod /" 
Hath thy glory indeed departed ? 

II. But if the Reformed Church places the word of 
God so decidedly above any word of man, and gives it 
pre-eminence even above Faith, on the other hand it 
places Faith above the Church. One of the oldest doc- 
tors, Irenaeus of Lyons, has called attention to this great 
antithesis : Where the Spirit is, there is the Church ; 
this is the principle of the Reform ; and Where the 
Church is, there is the Spirit, is the principle of Rome 
and Oxford ; and it is also, though in a milder form, 
that of Lutheranism. A distinguished theologian, Dr. 
Lange, who occupies in the university of one of our 
confederate cities the professorship which was intended 
for Strauss, has recently brought to mind that antithesis, 
wording it thus: The Church comes of faith, or faith 
comes of the Church. We do not hesitate to say that 
both these propositions are true in a certain sense, and 
provided the visible Church be not confounded with the 
invisible ; for there is a marvelous alternative between 



LUTHERANISM AND CALVINISM. 213 

faith and the Church. But observe : while Lutheranism 
places emphasis on the latter, and declares that, since 
the foundation of the Church, God converts men only by- 
means of the Church, the Reform, on the contrary, lays 
stress on the former, and asserts that faith, that faith 
which God implants in the heart, alone begets the 
Church. Hence the Reform does not say, The Church 
(which is the assembly of the faithful) exists first, and 
then follows each individual believer ; but it says, First 
each believer exists, and then comes the Church, which 
is the union of all. Lutheranism says, First the species, 
then the individual ; the Reform says, First the individ- 
ual, then the species. We are ready to allow that both 
are right, but we add, that it should be our especial 
care to uphold the principle of the Reform. 

And why so ? Because if we assert, in an absolute 
sense, that faith comes of the Church, we establish at 
once the principle that leads to the Inquisition, and 
which gave rise to it in times past. Now, at the period 
of the Reformation, when for centuries all those who 
did not humbly receive their faith from the visible 
Church had been stretched on the rack, it was necessa- 
ry that the renewed Church should loudly proclaim op- 
posite principles. The Reform is then in direct oppo- 
sition here to Rome, and also to ultra-Lutheranism. By 
this name we call that extreme Lutheran orthodoxy, 
which, in the days of Calow and Quenstedt, exaggera- 
ting the Lutheran principle, revived the scholastic sys- 
tem, and placed above all other doctrines that of the 
Church and the means of salvation. 

The Reform, on the contrary, remembering that 
Christ saves His people soul by soul, gives, has given, 
and always will give the first place in Christian theolo- 
gy to what concerns the individual work, the regenera- 
tion, the justification, and the conversion of the believer. 



214 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

Thus, what distinguishes Lutheranism is the import- 
ance attached to the Church, to the Church collective- 
ly, and particularly to its ministers. In truth, it is not 
very far from that sacerdotalism which is the essence 
of Rome and of Oxford. The Lutherans do not hesitate 
to give their pastors the name of priests ; and in a cele- 
brated book on Practical Theology, written by a Ger- 
man whose memory is very dear to us, Claude Harms, 
prevost of Kiel, one of the sections is entitled the 
Preacher, another the Pastor, and a third the Priest. 

This, too, was essential to our unity. The individual 
element of the Reform might have brought on dissolu- 
tion and dispersion of the members of the Church, 
which would have proved fatal to the whole body, had 
it not been restrained by the ecclesiastical element of 
Lutheranism ; as also the tendency of the latter would 
have been to languor and certain death, had it not been 
restrained by the spontaneous and vivifying influence 
of the Reform. It is the combination of these two 
forces, the one centripetal, the other centrifugal, which 
has lanched into the universe a new world, and which 
sustains it. 

Shall we abandon, then, the principle of our strength, 
as we are called upon to do? God preserve us from 
this invasion on the eternal decrees of His all- wise prov- 
idence ! Let us not look on one side only ; let us ex- 
amine both, and contemplate the magnificent ensemble 
of the work of the Lord. If a man is a Lutheran, he is 
right, quite right; if a man embraces the Lutheran faith, 
he is right still ; but if he is Reformed, if he converses 
with the Reformed, he should neither act nor speak as 
though he were Lutheran, or as though he were address- 
ing Lutherans, to counteract, impede, and destroy the 
Reformed principle in the bosom of the Reform itself. 

We shall not enumerate here the numberless evils to 



LUTHERANISM AND CALVINISM. 215 

which too strict an application of the Lutheran princi- 
ples has led. From this arose clerocracy,* or the ex- 
cessive authority of the pastor, or, more properly speak- 
ing, confessor (for among the Lutherans each individual 
has a pastor to whom he gives that name), so that, in 
the last century, these confessors having become infidels, 
and the unsuspecting Lutherans continuing to submit to 
them, infidelity spread throughout their churches with 
inconceivable facility. It has even been asserted, in 
Lutheranism, that each individual should cling to his 
spiritual guide, appointed by the competent ecclesiasti- 
cal authority, even though that guide were a stranger 
or entirely opposed to the true faith ! The Reformed 
Christians will never acknowledge this as their maxim. 
They will ever rank the Bible above the pastor, and, if 
there is a decided disagreement between them, rather 
than allow themselves and their children to be led by 
them into infidelity, they will forsake their pastor, and 
take refuge beneath the word of Christ. In so doing, 
they carry the Church with them, leaving to themselves 
both the sect and the pastor. 

It is from this Ecclesiasticism that originates the dif- 
ferent importance which the Lutherans and the Re- 
formed attach to the confessions of faith of the Church- 
es. The Lutherans look upon them as rules of faith — 
normcB normatce ; and they have even gone so far as to 
assert that their authors had a kind of inspiration, such 
inspiration as the Roman Catholics call deutero- canoni- 
cal, when speaking of the Apocryphal books. In the 
Reform, symbolical writings are, on the contrary, but 
the expression of the faith of the Church. " Our Church- 
es do not say to those who desire to occupy our pulpits, 

* This word, as well as another here used (ecclesiasticism), though coined 
by the author, is none the less significant and appropriate for its novelty. — 
Trans. 



216 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

Believe ! but they ask them, Do you believe ?" Thus 
spoke, in the true spirit of the Reform, two men who 
are dear to us, Cellerier and Gaussen, when, twent3>"-five 
years ago, they republished the Helvetic Confession of 
Faith in Geneva. Although this privilege belongs, by 
right, to another here present, allow me to pay a pass- 
ing tribute to the memory of this faithful servant of Je- 
sus Christ,* who was taken from us a few weeks since, 
in a good old age, and whose glory it was to have been 
the first, after a century of infidelity, to raise again in 
our country the standard of the Gospel and the Reform. 

Again I repeat: The Church comes of faith, rather 
than faith of the Church. 

This is our watchword. And who will dare assert 
that the time is come when we should lower our colors, 
and meekly march under those which others offer us, 
and which Papacy itself has shown for so many centu- 
ries past 1 If any of our brethren deem it their duty so 
to do, we openly declare that we will not ; convinced 
that, in this day, to uphold and vindicate the principles 
of the Reform is to save the Reformation. 

But, it may be said, if the maxim that faith comes of 
the Church leads to the Inquisition, the maxim that the 
Church comes of faith leads to separation. 

We do not deny that this is the excess of the princi- 
ple, nor that this excess is to be seen in our day. But 
we deny that the abuse of a principle can ever subvert 
it. No ; the principle of the Reform is not essentially a 
principle of separation ; nor does it necessarily flow 
from that principle, that Christendom should be divided 
into a thousand sects. Undoubtedly, it is a right and a 
duty of a Christian, as was done in the days of the Ref- 
ormation, and has been repeatedly done since, to sepa- 

* The author alludes to the recent death of the venerable Cellerier, an il- 
lustrious servant of God in Geneva.-— Trans. 



LUTHERANISM AND CALVINISM. 217 

rate from a community which no longer confesses Jesus 
Christ, " God manifest in the flesh," the only righteous- 
ness of His people. But to make separation a constant- 
ly-recurring duty, is, according to the Reform, to tram- 
ple under foot numerous passages of the word of God ; 
it is to invite what the Apostle Paul declares should be 
rejected, " strifes, seditions, and heresies."* 

"I assert," says Calvin, "that we should not, for 
slight dissimilarity of opinion, separate from a Church 
where the fundamental doctrine of salvation is preserv- 
ed, and where the sacraments are lawfully administered 
according to the institution of our Lord."f 

However, if choice must be made between uniformi- 
ty and error on the one side, and diversity and truth on 
the other, the Reform does not hesitate ; it always sides 
with the truth ; truth being always its great aim. 

III. But the Reform has always distinguished itself 
by a liberal spirit of Christian charity ; and this third 
characteristic triumphantly answers the charge of sep- 
aratism ; it has ever held out a brotherly hand to all 
communions that preserve pure the doctrines of salva- 
tion. So that, while a sectarian spirit has animated 
other confessions in various degrees ; the Reform has 
ever worn on its brow the seal of true catholicity. 

We shall not here speak of the sectarian spirit of 
Rome or of Oxford ; these are well-known topics ; but 
history obliges us to acknowledge this spirit even in 
Lutheranism. The Lutherans, like the Romanists, have 
always aimed, not at fraternally uniting with the Re- 
form, but at absorbing it. 

Exclusiveness is a feature of Lutheranism. Here it 
will be asked, What becomes of your unity 1 This ex- 
clusiveness itself was necessary for it. It is one of the 

* Gal., v., 20. t Christian Institutes, book iv., chap. i. 

T 



21 8- DISCOURSES ANBf ESSAYS, 

wheels which must form part of the admirable machin- 
ery which the hand of the Great Architect prepared 
three centuries ago. Exclusiveness is essential to the 
Church. Who was more exclusive than He who said r 
" No man cometh unto the Father but by me V and again r 
"Without me ye can do nothing?" The Church needs 
a holy jealousy for the eternal truth of God. Latitudi- 
narianism is fatal to it. The history of all ages has 
proved this, and none can show it more clearly than 
that of our own age. It was this exclusiveness with 
which Martin Luther was charged ; and although he 
was mistaken in carrying out his exclusiveness, not only 
with regard to the fundamental doctrines, but even re- 
specting the different methods of understanding the same 
truth ; although it was against our Reform that his darts 
were hurled, yet we love, we admire Luther, even in 
his errors ; and we behold in him, not a furious Orestes, 
as he was called by Bucer and Capito themselves, but 
a Prometheus, who, anxious that man should lift his 
eyes toward heaven, 

, . . , erectos ad sidera toiler e vultus r 

and having taken fire from on high to inspire him, was 
cast down in consequence of his very elevation, and his 
entrails devoured by ruthless vultures. " Let him that 
thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall /" Luther be- 
lieved that the real presence of Christ was a truth of 
God, and he went too far to defend it. Mav God teach 
us what Luther did not know, to distinguish truth from 
falsehood, what is essential from what is secondary ! 
God grant unto us what Luther could not do, to instruct 
with mildness those who entertain opposite opinions ! 
But God grant at the same time that, like Luther, we 
may be inflamed with devotion to truth and filled with 
zeal for the house of God I 

Here again, however, we can not justify every thing. 



LUTHERANISM AND CALVINISM. 219 

History is inflexible, and points out sad excesses to us. 
This is the most painful part of our task ; for Luther is 
our father (we speak after the manner of men), a father 
whom we regard with profound veneration, and tender, 
filial affection. The true Lutherans are our friends, 
our beloved brethren ; they are among those whom we 
hope one day to join in the kingdom of our Lord. If, 
then, their opposition draws from us a sigh, let it never 
cause in our hearts the least bitterness of feeling toward 
them. Be it remembered that the violence of contro- 
versy, far from proving us to be declared enemies, is a 
proof of the closest bonds uniting us to Lutheranism ; 
for at all times, and in all matters, the more united we 
are on essential points, the more we are carried away 
by differences on minor ones. 

It was Luther, that great man of God, who in this, as 
in every thing else, advanced at the head of his Church. 
When, in 1527, the Reformed pleaded for brotherly 
love and Christian concord, he answered, " Be such 
charity and unity cursed, even to the bottomless depths 
of hell." He himself relates to one of his friends that, 
at the conference convoked at Marburg by the Land- 
grave of Hesse, to unite the Lutherans and the Reform- 
ed, Zwingle, mOved to tears, approached him, saying, 
" There are no men on earth with whom I so much de- 
sire to be united as with the Wittembergers." And 
Luther repulsed the Zurich Reformer, answering, " Your 
spirit is not our spirit !" and refused to acknowledge 
Zwingle and the Swiss as his brethren. 

Since that day a sectarian spirit has always pervaded 
Lutheranism. When, in 1553, the unhappy Reformed 
were driven from London by the unfeeling order of 
bloody Mary, they were cruelly repulsed, in the midst 
of winter, by the advice of the Lutheran theologians, 
from the walls of Copenhagen, of Rostock, of Liibeck, 



220 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

and of Hamburg, where they asked for shelter. " Bet- 
ter Papists than Calvinists," said they; "better Moham- 
medans than Reformed." And on one house in Wit- 
temberg was written, " The words and the writings of 
Luther are poison to the Pope and to Calvin." The 
name of Calvin was given to cats and dogs. Books 
were published with such titles as these : " Proofs that 
the Calvinists have six hundred and thirty-six errors in 
common with the Turks ;" " Brief evidence that the 
present attempt at union (1721) with the self-styled Re- 
formed is in direct opposition to the Ten Command- 
ments, to all the articles of the Apostles' Creed, to all 
the petitions of the Lord's Prayer, to the doctrine of 
holy Baptism, the power of the Keys, the holy Commun- 
ion, as well as the whole Catechism." In a Lutheran 
Catechism of the beginning of the sixteenth century 
this question is asked : " Dost thou believe that, instead 
of honoring and worshiping the true and living God, 
the Calvinists honor and worship the devil? Answer: 
I do, from the bottom of my heart." A Lutheran doc- 
tor, who is still living, and is remarkable for his piety 
and zeal, applies the following passage from St. Paul to 
the Reformed : " Be ye not yoked with unbelievers." 
It is well known that the Lutheran missionary societies 
have recently dissolved their connection with that of 
the city of Basle, which, however, comes nearer Lu- 
theranism than any of the Reformed churches. 

What shall we say concerning these excesses ? We 
will say, with St. Paul, ** They have zeal without knowl- 
edge ;" and we will add with a smile the well-known 
words of Jerome of Prague, when he saw a peasant ap- 
proach with a load of wood to deposit on his stake, 
Sancta simplicitas ! and then we will repeat that the 
Lutherans are our brethren, our well beloved brethren ! 

A spirit of conciliation, of union and fraternity, has 



LUTHERANISM AND CALVINISM. 221 

pervaded our Church in all ages, and is, perhaps, its most 
beautiful ornament. Zwingle, CEcolampadius, Calvin, 
and Farel always extended a brotherly hand to Luther 
and his friends. Calvin, even, does not hesitate to assert 
that, in his sight, Luther is far superior to Zwingle : 
" For if these two are compared, you are aware how 
much Luther surpasses him."* And he writes thus to 
Bullinger on the 25th of November, 1544 : " I hear that 
Luther is lavishing the most cruel invectives upon you 
and all of us. I scarcely dare ask of you to be si- 
lent ; but I earnestly entreat you, at least, to remember 
how great a man Luther is ; what admirable qualities 
distinguish him ; what courage, what faithfulness, what 
skill, what power of doctrine he possesses to bring 
down the reign of anti-Christ, and to propagate the 
knowledge of salvation. I say, and have frequently re- 
peated, that even though he should call me Satan, I 
would not cease to honor him and acknowledge him to 
be an illustrious servant of God." These are sublime 
words ; let the Reform never forget them ! And ob- 
serve, they come from Calvin, that man who is repre- 
sented to us as so irritable and so proud. 

At different times, proposals for peace and projects 
of union were offered by the Reform. The Reformed 
of French-Switzerland particularly showed, on this score, 
the most unshaken perseverance. At the period when 
the ultra-Lutherans, Westphal, Timann, Von Eitzen, and 
many others had discharged their heavy artillery upon 
the Reform, Calvin and his friends appeared on the field 
of battle, with the olive branch in their hands. This 
same year (1557), when Theodore Beza and Farel 
traveled throughout all the cities of Switzerland, to ex- 
cite the public sympathy in favor of the Waldenses, who 

* Nam si inter se comparantur, scis ipse quanto intervallo Lutherus ex- 
cept. 

T 2 



222 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

had been cruelly massacred in the valley of Angrogna, 
they also visited Germany, where they presented a Con- 
fession of Faith of the Churches of Switzerland and Sa- 
voy, designing to unite all the Reformation, by convin- 
cing the Lutheran Churches that they also were brethren 
and fellow-soldiers in the war against anti-Christ. In 
1631, the General Synod of Charenton, near Paris, took 
the lead, accomplished this union, and passed a resolu- 
tion which declared that " the Churches of the Confes- 
sion of Augsburg agreeing with them in all the articles 
essential to true religion, the members of these Church- 
es may be allowed to present themselves at the holy 
table without any previous abjuration." In our days it 
is from the Reformed that propositions and efforts to re- 
establish true union in the Church have always pro- 
ceeded. 

And wherefore this difference between Lutheranism 
and the Reform ? Undoubtedly it proceeds in great 
part, as far as Luther and the Lutherans are concerned, 
from the importance they attach to the real presence of 
Christ in the Lord's Supper, from that unshaken attach- 
ment to what they believe to be the truth, which we 
sincerely respect ; but we must say that it also results 
from that difference which we have already designated. 
The Biblical tendency of the Reform must lead all the 
Reformed to attach slight importance to Ecclesiastical 
differences and much to Bible truth ; consequently, to 
endeavor to extend a brotherly hand to all Churches, 
and all individuals who hold to the Bible. It is thus 
from sound principles that beneficial consequences al- 
ways flow. Let us remain faithful to this spirit of true 
catholicity. Let us not forget these memorable words 
of the Apostle, " One God, one Lord, one body, and one 
spirit." To uphold these is the special mission of the 
Reform. 



LUTHERANISM AND CALVINISM. 223 

IV. But if the Reform possesses great liberality, it is 
none the less distinguished for a genuine profoundness* 
It is not merely a reformation of faith, as is Lutheranism, 
fout a reformation of life ; and for this reason it is more 
universally Christian. Undoubtedly, Antinomianism is 
foreign to Lutheranism ; Luther himself opposed it. Still, 
there is great difference in the manner in which Luther- 
anism and the Reform vie w the law. A singular and char- 
acteristic feature points out one of the principal differen- 
ces. In the Lutheran Catechism, the ten commandments 
.are placed before faith, before dogmas. Their use is to 
convince man of ski, and bring Him to Christ. On the 
contrary, in the Reformed Catechism, the law is placed 
after faith, and after the doctrine of salvation, as an ex- 
pression of the gratitude of the child of God for his re- 
demption through Christ. The law, according to Lu- 
ther, is for the unconverted only. According to Calvin, 
it is also addressed to believers. 

Luther did not accomplish a reformation of morals, 
nov did he even attempt it. This was not, undoubted- 
ly, because he did not think it of the highest importance. 
&i How," as he wrote to the brethren of Bohemia, who 
desired him to establish such discipline, " how can we, 
who live in the midst of Sodom, of Gomorrah, and of 
Babylon, bring about order, discipline, and exemplary 
life ?" Luther thought that the Reformation of morals 
should proceed simply -and naturally from the influence 
of sound doctrine. 

Let us here observe, again, how necessary the diver- 
sity of Lutheranism and the Reform is for the unity and 
even the existence of the Reformation. Who does not 
discern a profound Christian truth in the doctrine that 
faith leads to sound, morals? Was it not necessary, 
after centuries in which the discipline of the Church had 
caused innumerable troubles, and still greater supersti- 



224 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS, 

tions, that there should be a protestation against these 
fatal errors ? Was it not necessary that, besides the 
strength of the Reform, which has a sectarian tendency, 
there should be another force in the renewed Church 
that should tend to enlarge the views of the faithful I 
Was it not necessary that, above all that men could do,, 
above all their efforts to rebuke the disorderly and to 
watch over the Lord's inheritance, there should be a fin- 
ger to point to heaven, and that a loud voice should pro- 
nounce this oracle i " The good shepherd goeth before 
his sheep, and his sheep follow him, for they know his 
voice ?" But if one of these was necessary, the other 
was not less so. The work of Christian vigilance and 
pastoral guardianship was intrusted to the Reform ;. and 
we are reformed. 

Zwingle started from this principle : " A universal 
renovation of life and morals is as requisite as a renova- 
tion of faith." Immediately after the Reformation, in 
Zurich, Berne,, and Basle, ordinances for the promotion 
of good morals were published, prostitution was abolish- 
ed, pensions and enlistments in foreign service were 
suppressed \ and when afterward the pope, according: 
to his ancient custom, required troops from Zurich, the 
citizens offered him instead two thousand monks and 
priests whom they could spare ! Would to God that in 
our day we sent not Swiss soldiers to Rome. The 
morals of ministers were particularly insisted on : " As 
the word of Truth is solemn, the life of its servant ought 
also to be grave," said the ordinance of 1532. 

But it was especially in Geneva that this principle 
was fully carried out. Calvin, with the zeal of a proph- 
et and the resignation of a martyr who submits himself 
unreservedly to the severe word of God, exacted of the 
Church under his care absolute obedience. He struggled 
hard with the party of the Libertines, and by the grace 



LUTHERANISM AND CALVINISM. 225 

of God he overcame. Geneva, which was so corrupt 
before, was regenerated, and evinced a purity of morals 
and a Christian simplicity so remarkable, that it drew 
from Farel (after an absence of fifteen years) an ex- 
pression of admiration in these memorable words : " I 
had rather be the last in Geneva than the first elsewhere." 

And fifty years after the death of Calvin, a fervent 
Lutheran, John Valentine Andreas, having passed some 
time within our walls, said on his return, " What I have 
seen there I shall never forget. The most beautiful or- 
nament of that republic is its tribunal of morals, which 
every week inquires into the disorders of the citizens. 
Games of cards and chance, swearing and blasphemy, 
impurity, quarreling, hatred, deceitfulness, infidelity, 
drunkenness, and other vices, are repressed. Oh ! 
how beautiful an ornament to Christianity is this purity. 
We Lutherans can not too deeply deplore its absence 
among us. If the difference of doctrine did not separate 
me from Geneva, the harmony of its morals could have 
induced me to remain there forever." 

This moral character was not confined to Switzer- 
land and Geneva alone ; it spread through France, Hol- 
land, Scotland, and wherever the Reform made its way. 
It has in a measure remained in some of those countries 
to the present day. A German author, Mr. Goebel, 
having related that a traveler, also a German, was un- 
able to find in the churches of Scotland which he visit- 
ed a single instance of adultery and divorce, and very 
little impurity, exclaims, " Let the frightful immorality 
of Germany be contrasted with this ; in the country as 
well as in the city let only the pastors be interrogated, 
and one will be filled with astonishment and terror." 
Alas ! we can not pride ourselves on such a state of 
things at present. These morals are no more. We 
do not pretend to say that there was nothing in this 



226 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

discipline adapted to hasten its fall ; on the contrary, 
we think that the part the State took in these matters 
must inevitably have destroyed it. We reject all Christ- 
ian discipline exercised by constables and soldiers ; but 
we think we can lay aside all public force, retaining the 
power of vigilance, of charity, and of the word of God. 

This was not done, and what is the result ? Senebier 
said, " The prosperity of Geneva was long the fruit of 
Calvin's wise laws. In the purity of our ancient morals 
consisted our glory. We can prove that one of the 
causes of our misfortunes is the diminution of their in- 
fluence. Thus, Rome was lost when its censors could 
not make themselves heard any more, and Sparta fell 
with the credit of those whose charge was to cause 
virtue to be respected." If Senebier spoke thus in 
1786, what shall we now say ? 

Ah ! who could fail to understand what Montesquieu 
said, that the Genevese ought to bless and celebrate the 
day of Calvin's birth, and that of his arrival in their 
midst ? But what the most profound politician of the 
eighteenth century clearly saw, the Genevese have not 
comprehended. Instead of celebrating the birthday of 
the Reformer, they and their children celebrate that of a 
noted sophist, a man of an ardent soul, of unsurpassed tal- 
ent, but who sent to the hospital the sad results of his 
libertinism ! They have erected a magnificent statue 
to the memory of Rousseau, and they have erected none 
to Calvin ! " We will do it at Edinburgh," said a Scotch 
divine to me last year. " Edinburgh," added he, " is 
now the metropolis of the Reform." 

The revival of faith and sound morals among the Re- 
formed is the statue which Calvin, that great but unas- 
suming man, would have desired. Shall we not erect 
it? And if now, as in Saxony in the days of Luther, 
a too rigid law is inapplicable, shall we not at least re- 



LUTHERANISM AND CALVINISM* 28-7 

anember, that whoever asks for a reformation of morals 
possesses the spirit of the Reform, and that it is the 
most sacred duty, not only of ministers, but of all re- 
formed Christians, to cause all those who invoke the 
name of the Savior to be " blameless and harmless, the 
sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a perverse 
nation" 

V. This leads us to a fifth consideration. The Re- 
form has, both in its principles and its progress, some- 
thing more decided than Lutheranism. The principle 
of Lutheranism was, to preserve in the Church all that 
is not condemned by the word of God ; while that of the 
Reform was, to abolish in the Church all that is not 
prescribed by the word of God. Lutheranism is a ref- 
ormation of the Church ; the Reform, its renovation ; 
or, to express this distinction by the different pronunci- 
ations of the same word, Lutheranism is a reformation, 
the Reform a reformation. Lutheranism took the 
Church, such as it was, contenting itself with effacing 
its stains. The Reform took the Church at its origin, 
and erected its edifice on the living Rock of the Apos-. 
ties. While Luther, hearing what Carlstadt was doing, 
writes, " We must remain in the middle path," and op- 
poses those who cast down the images, Carlstadt, the 
first Reformed, from the year 1521 boldly reforms the 
church of Wittemberg, of which he was the prevost, 
abolishing the mass, images, and confessions, the fast 
days, and all the abuses of papacy. Zwingle, almost at 
the same time, proceeds in the same manner at Zurich; 
and as to what took place in Geneva, we shall merely 
transcribe here an inscription which, for nearly three 
centuries, remained on the walls of our City Hall, from 
1536 to 1798, and which expresses better than we could 
do the uncompromising character of the Reform, At 



228 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

the time of the jubilee of 1835, it was to have been 
placed in the Church of St. Peter, but it has not yet 
been done. 

"In the year 1535, the tyranny of Roman Antichrist 
having been overthrown, and its superstitions abolished, 
the most holy religion of Jesus Christ was established 
here in its purity, and the Church better organized, by 
an extraordinary blessing of God. And at the same 
time, this city itself having repulsed its enemies, and put 
them to flight, was again set free, but not without a re- 
markable miracle. The Council and the people of Ge- 
neva have here erected this monument to perpetuate its 
memory, so that the testimony of their gratitude toward 
God should descend to their posterity ." 

What has resulted from this difference between Lu- 
theranism and the Reform ? 

Two very distinct courses, each of which has its fa- 
vorable aspect. The course of Lutheranism is defens- 
ive, successive ; that of the Reform is offensive, acquis- 
itive. To Lutheranism belongs the principle of resist- 
ance and passivity ; to the Reform that of activity and 
life. 

Is it necessary to recall to your mind that these two 
tendencies are important to the prosperity of the Church? 
Must we insist that in a well-organized community im- 
mobility of principle should be joined to mobnUy of life 1 

There is not even a family where two opposHe ten- 
dencies are not to be found. To counterbalance the 
decisive and imposing authority of the father, the con- 
ciliating and indulgent tenderness of the mother is requi- 
site. Thus, in a political State, the conservative and 
the liberal elements should be constantly combined. An 
exclusive immobility leads to violence, hatred, and rev- 
olution. Had we not an example of this during the 
reign of Charles X. ? An excess of mobility leads to 



LUTHERANISM AND CALVINISM. 229 

levity, superficiality, agitation, and pride. Do not na- 
tions furnish us with a demonstration of this 1 These 
two elements are so indispensably necessary to the life 
of the whole body, that if, by some means, you could 
annihilate one of the two, it would soon reappear. In 
France, in 1830, the ancient conservators being excluded, 
those who, for fifteen years, had played the part of lib- 
erals, became themselves conservators. 

And what is necessary in the State, and even in each 
family, would you exclude from the Church 1 Would 
you by some revolution drive away one of these two 
elements ? Impotent conspirators ! Could you succeed 
in destroying the element of the Reform, you would be 
compelled to become Reformed yourselves ! 

But undoubtedly Lutheranism had much to suffer in 
the sixteenth century for having carried its principles 
too far. Halting between the Bible and the Church, 
between that which it should retain and that which it 
should reject, its progress was in consequence somewhat 
impeded, its Reformation could not attain the height to 
which it had before aspired, and Luther, naturally of a 
gay character and joyful temperament, ended his days 
in sadness and weariness. While the Reform, possess- 
ing a visible and unclouded aim in the Bible, and noth- 
ing but the Bible, advanced with power ; Calvin, Farel, 
Knox, and even Zwingle, died joyfully and triumphant- 
ly. What a death was Calvin's ; how touching his dy- 
ing words ! 

Lutheranism, paralyzed from the beginning, witnessed, 
after the death of Luther, its conservativeness turned 
into stagnation. 

The Lutheran princes, unfaithful to the glorious mem- 
ory of the Diet of Spire (1529), opposed every exten- 
sion of Protestantism, and were but too well seconded 
by their theologians. 

U 



230 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

Even now a new society, which we hail with affec- 
tion and respect, the Society of Gustavus Adolphus, 
faithful to this Lutheran principle, endeavors, it is true, 
to support the Protestant Churches which are tottering, 
yet declares itself opposed to any activity beyond the 
sphere of acknowledged Protestantism, as well as to all 
proselytism. 

It is not thus with the Reform. It advances, it gains 
every where. Our Evangelical Societies of Paris and 
Geneva, with their essentially proselyting characteris- 
tics, all our Missionary Societies, are the fruits of the 
Reformed spirit. 

But it is principally in the relation between these two 
Churches and the Papacy that we see the characteristic 
which distinguishes them. Lutheranism, which took 
the offensive with regard to the Reform, rested on the 
defensive with regard to the pope ; while the Reform, 
holding out the right hand of fellowship to Lutheranism, 
boldly and courageously took the offensive toward Rome. 
Melanchthon, at Augsburg, in 1530, said to the cardi- 
nals, that but a trifle separated him from the pope ; but 
an immense abyss separated him from Zwingle.* Lu- 
theranism, to which the visible Church is of so much 
moment, could capitulate with Rome. The Reform, 
which will have nothing but the Bible, must fight Rome 
boldly. Wherever are found superstitious fears of a 
struggle with Papacy ; wherever extreme circumspec- 
tion is observed ; wherever it is supposed, for instance, 
that prudence should keep Protestants from offering a 
fraternal hand to priests who reject the Pope, and con- 
fess Jesus Christ, there you will perhaps find ultra-Lu- 
theranism ; but there most assuredly the spirit of the 
Reform is not. 

* Dogma nullum habemus diversum ab ecclesia Romana. Parati sumus 
obedire ecclesiae Romanae. {Legato Pontificio Melanchthon.) Ambeunt (re- 
format!.) colloquium cum Philippo ; sed hie hactenus recusavit. — Brentius, 



LUTHERANISM AND CALVINISM. 231 

Inspired with a holy love for souls, and a deep con- 
viction that Rome leads them to perdition, the Reform 
seized the sword of the word three centuries ago, and 
commenced with the papal power a war, the issue of 
which is life or death. Notwithstanding the constant 
and violent opposition of the most powerful monarchs 
of Europe, notwithstanding the redoubled efforts of that 
hierarchy which fettered the whole world, the Reform 
has advanced, like little David against that gigantic Go- 
liath, having nothing in its sling but a few round peb- 
bles of God's word ; and it conquered in the name of 
the Lord of Hosts. 

We certainly acknowledge all that Christian princes 
have done, especially the immortal Gustavus Adolphus. 
But that was the work of a prince, and perhaps was 
done with political views. With us it is the business 
of the faithful, and the work of faith. It is the Reform 
which saved the Reformation in troublous times, and the 
Reform will save it yet in our days. 

It is true that it saved it at the price of its blood. 
While the Lutheran Church numbers scarcely any mar- 
tyrs, ours are counted by thousands ; and their faithful- 
ness filled the best Lutherans with respect and admira- 
tion, such Lutherans as the sympathizing Spener and 
Zinzendorf. In Switzerland, Scotland, and England, 
and especially in Belgium and France, the Inquisition, 
the daggers and the scaffolds of Popery, have covered 
with corpses the soil of the Bible. The Reform wit- 
nessed it, but it bowed not its head. It saw its children 
joyfully shed their blood, trusting in Jesus Christ, and it 
continued its onward march. 

A circular, written in the name of a priest, who calls 
himself Count of Lausanne, and Prince of the Holy Ro- 
man Empire (although since the beginning of this cen- 
tury there has existed no Holy Empire), has dared to 



232 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

say recently in that city, "Always, and every where, 
since the time of the apostles, the Church (of Rome), 
its pontiffs and its priests, have been persecuted. The 
holy pontiffs and priests of Jesus Christ, laboring from 
the origin of Christianity for the conversion and sancti- 
fication of souls, have never employed other means than 
those which the Gospel, conscience, and reason ap- 
prove."* 

This is really too much, and a sigh escapes us. What ! 
you dare hold such language in this city, in the midst 
of a people formed, so to speak, from the fragments 
that escaped from your wheels, your racks, and your 
knives ! We are accustomed to the effrontery of Rome, 
but we never had such a sample of it. 

Men of no memory ! To whom belongs the bloody 
application of these words, Constrain them to enter? 
By w r hose commands were shed those torrents of blood 
of the Waldenses and the Albigenses which inundated 
the Middle Ages ? Who, if not your pope, on the night 
of the 24th of August, 1572, amid nuptial festivals, caused 
the venerable Coligny, on his knees, and sixty thousand 
Reformed, to be cruelly butchered ? Who ordered all 
the bells in Rome to be rung in merry peals, and the can- 
non of the Castle of St. Angelo to resound, and medals 
to be struck ? Who, in 1685, razed to the ground more 
than sixteen hundred churches in France, slaughtered 
thousands and thousands of Protestants, and forced oth- 
ers to flee? In our days, who forbids, in nearly all 
Romish countries, the preaching of the Gospel ? Who 
compels the poor inhabitants of Zillerthal to leave their 
father-land ? Who makes laws in Austria against con- 
version to Protestantism ? Who condemned to prison 
that Maurette, who struggled here last winter with the 
priests, charged with having merely read your circular 

* Circular of the Bishop of Lausanne and Geneva, of 17th of May, 1844. 



LUTHER ANISM AND CALVINISM. 233 

from the pulpit? Who, two months since, in a village 
near our frontier, within three miles of this place, caused 
a poor peasant to be arrested, thrown into a dungeon,, 
and condemned to the galleys, for having committed 
no other crime than that of reading his Bible? Who, 
not in the fourteenth or fifteenth century, but only a 
few weeks since, condemned to death Maria Joaquina 
for having refused to worship the Virgin, and to believe 
the doctrine of transubstantiation ? And you speak of 
Rome as a persecuted Church ! And you assert that it 
has never employed other means than the voice of con- 
science and of persuasion ! . . . Men of no memory! . . * 
Come, come ! when you persecute, you are consistent 
with yourselves. Persecution ought to be, and is, in 
fact, a dogma of yours. No one will envy you that 
opprobrium, no one will rob you of that glory. . . i 
Your Church is a Church of murderers; ours is a 
Church of martyrs. 

VI. We shall select but one more characteristic among 
all those which yet remain. It is a consequence of that 
characteristic on which we have just remarked. It is the 
difference which exists between these two communions, 
both as to liberty of the Church and liberty of the State. 

Whatever his enemies may say to the contrary, Lu- 
ther was an humble and submissive monk ; and howev- 
er great may have been the power which he acquired 
by his language, he ever remained within the bounds of 
the most perfect obedience to his emperor and his prince. 
And even in 1530, Luther, who in 1522 had written a 
book entitled, " Against the State, falsely called spiritu- 
al, of the Pope and the Bishops," appeared, as did Me- 
lanchthon also, entirely ready to acknowledge all bishops, 
provided those bishops would acknowledge the authori- 
ty of the Gospel. Luther's Reformation was essentially 

U 2 



234 DISCOURSES ATCD ESSAYS. 

monarchical in its relations to the State, and hierarchical 
in its relations to the Church. The people are never 
brought forward in it otherwise than as modestly re- 
ceiving that which is given them by the higher authori- 
ties. It is true that Luther at last made quite a proper 
distinction between the two swords of the Church and 
the State ; but after him, and even in his day, the Lu- 
theran princes, invested with the territorial episcopacy, 
absorbed all liberties, and all ecclesiastical independence. 

Is it necessary to observe that Lutheranism possesses 
peculiar excellence in this respect ? The vehicle which 
bore the human mind was, in the sixteenth century, at 
the top of a steep declivity. The Reform boldly seated 
itself on the coachman's box ; with one hand it seized 
the reins, and with the other it used the whip ; and away 
went the coach. What was necessary to prevent a 
terrible catastrophe at the foot of the mountain ? To 
use a vulgar comparison, the wheel-lock must be used ; 
that lock was Lutheranism. By this means the progress 
is rapid, though safe ; and if it be true that the dreaded 
danger has been realized, it is because both Lutheranism 
and the Reform have lost their essential characteristics, 
and their intrinsic excellence, during the past century ; 
it is that the wheel-lock has been taken off, and the driv- 
er thrown to the ground. 

In this, therefore, consists a new difference between 
the Reform and Lutheranism ; and it was not unaptly 
that Bossuet said, in the presence of the court of Louis 
XIV., The Calvinists are bolder than the Lutherans. 

The Reform, in its very origin, was essentially dem- 
ocratic. Switzerland, where the Reform is developed, 
is an assembly of small nations in which the people are 
the sovereign. There the reformation comes from the 
people ; and when the councils are opposed to it (as, for 
Stance, at Basle), the people make it prevail. The po- 



LUTHERANISM AND CALVINISM. 235 

litical rights and liberties, which were trodden under 
foot by the Papacy, and which Lutheranism gave up 
without reluctance, are zealously claimed by the Reform. 
They advance with it, and are established wherever it 
goes. The reformation of the Free Cities of Germany, 
now Lutheran,* was the most striking act of their unfet- 
tered will ; but in making this supreme effort they lost 
their energy and their freedom, and from that time they 
fell under the influence of their formidable neighbors. 

But the Reform, on the contrary, wherever it goes, 
makes sacred the ancient liberties and bears new ones 
with it. Why is it that the fate of Geneva, a free impe- 
rial city, is at present very different from that of Augs- 
burg, Nuremberg, and many other towns, which were 
once as free and independent as it is ? History will an- 
swer. In 1 559, when Geneva was in dread of a siege, 
Calvin himself helped on the work of raising another 
rampart. To the same spirit which animated Calvin, 
Geneva owed her capability of maintaining her inde- 
pendence against formidable enemies for three centuries. 
Every where is this distinction between Lutheranism 
and the Reform apparent. In our own days, for in- 
stance, when, on the fall of Charles X. in 1830, the 
Christians of France and some other countries rejoiced, 
and the Christians of Germany were astounded and 
scandalized, perhaps the simple reason of this was that 
the former were Reformed and the latter Lutherans. 

This has long furnished the Roman Catholics with a fa- 
vorite subject for reproachful language toward the Re- 
form. Well, be it so. Only let us remember the con- 
tinual commotions of Popish countries, of Italy, Spain, 
Portugal, Poland, Belgium, Ireland, France, and (but 
three days since) the battle of Trient (Valais). Let us 

* Save Bremen; there the Reformed Church and doctrine prevail.— 
Trans. 



236 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

remember the anxiety, the uneasiness, and the sad groans 
of the Lutheran states of Germany. Let us remember 
the mighty and fruitful liberties which are peaceably en- 
joyed by the Reformed countries at this time ; by Scot- 
land, Holland, England, America, and by some Swiss 
cantons. And if, in America, the quiet city of William 
Penn, once the city of Brotherly Love, is now defiled 
by bloody riots, whence is it ? We do not say that the 
Protestants have been in no wise wrong. On the con- 
trary, we grant that in this case probably the salt hath 
lost its savor. But it is perfectly evident that the dis- 
aster which has occurred in Philadelphia is an act by 
which Popery and Ireland signalize their invasion there. 

As it regards political freedom, Popery is in a state 
of revolution, Lutheranism in a state of fermentation, 
and the Reform in a state of possession. 

Let no one say, There are democratic sympathies in 
the Reform ; it is therefore not suitable for monarchies. 
This would be a singular anachronism-, it would be 
reasoning in the style of the age of Louis XIV. Do 
not the greatest minds of the day acknowledge that 
democracy, under one form or another, is a future state 
toward which all nations tend ? Now, if the Reform, 
as M. De Tocqueville himself asserts, possesses the 
light and the strength necessary to lead and moderate 
democracy, is it not essential to the future interests of 
all states ? To reject it now, would be to send off the 
seamen, to chase away the pilot, to throw overboard 
the compass, and to break the rudder, at the very mo- 
ment when the ship is about to set sail and go forth into 
the open sea. " Let us reform the morals of democracy 
by religion," says De Tocqueville. The Reform is the 
golden bit, powerful, yet easy, which a Divine hand has 
prepared for the mouth of liberty. True pacific democ- 
racy is the Reform. You will find it nowhere else, 



LUTHERANISM AND CALVINISM. 237 

But, if the Reformed Church gives freedom to the 
State, it is because it possesses freedom itself. In the 
Reform, the government of the Church does not proceed 
from certain individuals whose functions place them 
above all the rest, but from the Church as a body, from 
the vote of each believer, so that, if any are raised above 
the rest, it is only as instruments or delegates of the 
Church. All necessary precautions are taken to hinder 
domination from entering it. " Let the moderator have 
the presidency" (say the ordinances of Schaffhausen), 
" but nothing more, lest a monarchy should take the place 
of democracy." 

The Reform does not establish a Church of the cler- 
gy ; it establishes, observe, a Church of the people ; not 
of a worldly people, but of the people of God ; that is to 
say, a Church essentially, though not exclusively, com- 
posed of those devout and holy men whose thoughts 
have been led captive to the obedience of Christ. 

Finally, as to the independence of the Church — we 
do not say entire separation from the State, for we shall 
not enter upon that subject in this discourse — as to the 
independence of the Church, that is not less essential in 
the Reform. Zwingle, to be sure, who never met with 
any opposition from the State, and who, on the contra- 
ry, received all kind of help from it, regarded the Church 
as a society embraced in the State, protected, cared for, 
and even, in some measure, governed by the State. But 
had Zwingle been living in a day when the State at- 
tacks Christian truth, for the benefit of Popery or Socin- 
ianism, do you suppose that he would have given up 
the Church to its rule ? No ! he would have separated 
from it. 

Even before Calvin asserted this, the Synod of Berne, 
in 1532, declared that the State ought not to interfere 
with religious matters except in respect to external or- 



238 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

der. " But as to the work of grace, it is not in the pow- 
er of man, and is dependent on no magistrate. The 
State should not meddle with the conscience ; Jesus 
Christ our Lord is our only Master. If the magistrate 
meddles with the Gospel, he will only make hypocrites." 

But it was especially Calvin, the head of the Reform, 
who reclaimed the autonomy, autocracy, and independ- 
ence of the Church. He was not, like Zwingle, a cit- 
izen by birth of a republic, but a subject of a monarchy, 
and as such he felt less than the former, that he was an 
integral part of the State. The organization of a mon- 
archy, moreover, gave place, much less than that of a 
republic, to that confusion of Church and State which 
Zwingle realized. 

Luther was a German, Zwingle was a Swiss ; but na- 
tionality found but a secondary place in the great mind of 
Calvin ; Christ and the Church were every thing to him. 
He was neither French, nor Swiss, nor Genevese ; he 
was of the City of God. On leaving France he sacri- 
ficed all that was most precious to him ; he did not 
build up new idols to replace his old ones. Doubtless 
he loved Geneva ; it was his adopted country ; but the 
remembrance of his great nationality was above that 
of all lesser ones. Nothing was so insupportable to 
him as national egotism. Turning away from those 
narrow places in which others chose to remain, his ea- 
gle eye was continually fixed on the Church as a whole. 
His colleagues in the Cantons endeavored to form a 
Swiss national Church ; but this scheme seemed too 
paltry for his lofty genius ; and, passing over rivers and 
mountains, he constantly aspired to the Universal Church. 
He knew none other than the holy nation, none other 
than the ransomed people. 

His very principle, which bound him to biblical and 
apostolical antiquity, led him back to the Church of the 



LUTHERANISM AND CALVINISM. 239 

first three centuries, and made him view the independ- 
ence of the Church as its normal state. And how 
could Calvin, at the sight of the State united in France 
to the Romish hierarchy, and roaring like a wild beast 
at the humble followers of the Man of Galilee, resist the 
desire of sheltering the Church from its attacks ? Nor 
was it merely the oppression of Francis I. or of Henry 
II. which he rejected, but the protection of Reformed 
magistrates also gave him much uneasiness. He view- 
ed the relation which existed between the Church and 
the State in Zurich and Berne as something servile, 
which hindered the free movements of the Church, and 
was encroaching on its holy liberty. " I do not believe 
that we are so slavishly fettered," he writes, in 1557, to 
Bullinger,* who insisted on the authority of the magis- 
trate. 

Calvin, therefore, entirely rejected the idea of having 
the State govern the Church, even though the State 
might have become evangelical. He wanted it to form 
a community sui generis, of which each member would 
have a certain share in the government. He made of 
each church a small democracy, and of the union of 
these churches a Confederation. 

Nowhere, perhaps, was the spirit of Calvin so strong- 
ly manifested, with regard to the independence of the 
Church, as in the Canton of Vaud. The Church in that 
fine country stood between Geneva and Berne, as be- 
tween two conflicting forces. The spirit of independ- 
ence and liberty seemed wafted to it from the walls of 
Geneva by the mighty breath of Calvin : while the mil- 
itary republic of Berne, desirous of preserving that pow- 
er of the State, which for several centuries contributed 
to its greatness, endeavored, with a strong arm, to draw 
tighter the bonds and forms by which the State was at- 

* Non puto tam serviliter nos constrictos teneri. 



240 Discourses and essays. 

tempting to restrain the Church. Berne could not per- 
mit any part whatsoever of the public power to be with- 
drawn from the mighty hands of the State, not even in 
religious matters. And thus, when the Vaudois* Church 
claimed the free exercise of ecclesiastical discipline, the 
State feared lest, if this power were granted, its inde- 
pendence might thereby be acknowledged in some de- 
gree. It was willing to allow discipline, but it wanted 
to exercise it by means of its own officers.f 

Nevertheless, Viret, Theodore Beza, and a numbei 
of other ministers maintained the principles of independ- 
ence in the Canton of Vaud. The ties uniting it to 
Berne were daily slackening, and all turned their eyes 
to Geneva. These two great systems, placed in oppo- 
sition to each other, rendered a crisis unavoidable. "A 
rupture was inevitable," says the learned Hundeshagen 
(who is now a professor at Berne), in his history of the 
struggles of that Church. Thus, in the sixteenth centu- 
ry, two hundred and fifty years previous to its emanci- 
pation, the independence of the Church was probably on 
the point of giving political independence to the Vaudois 
people. But the bearj was the stronger. It rushed 
down roaring from its mountain heights ; and Viret, and 
Beza, and Marlorat, and Merlin, with about forty of 
their brethren, all friends of the freedom of the Church, 
had to fly from the country where they had preached 
the Gospel of Christ with so much joy, and went to en- 
rich Geneva and the Reformed churches of France 
with their piety and their learning. The Free Church 
of Scotland was allowed to remain in the very scene of 

* Vaud is a Swiss canton ; the term Vaudois must not be confounded 
here with the French name of the Waldenses, which is spelt in the same 
way. — Trans. 

t Ordonnance de reformation des seigneurs de Berne. Voir Ruchat, 
1837, tome iv., p. 522. — Pieces Justificatives. 

t The bear is the emblem of the Bernese Republic. 



LUTHERANISM AND CALVINISM. 241 

the struggle ; but the Free Church of Vaud, having its 
strongest limbs broken, and its hands chained together 
by a powerful Republic, was obliged to leave its smiling 
villages, its valleys, and its mountains ..... and the 
fettered Church alone remained. The whole classis of 
pastors was imprisoned for two days in the castle of 
Lausanne ; and not one was allowed to leave that pris- 
on until he had promised to appear at the first summons. 
At the same time the State withdrew from the Church 
the power of convoking either classes or colloquies* in 
future. Thus Vaud was the scene of the complete tri- 
umph of the State over the Church. " Order reigned 
in Warsaw." That order, which followed one of the 
most memorable struggles of Christianity, has endured 
for three centuries, and the influence of the Bernese 
principles has so pervaded that beautiful country, in the 
course of time, that if the eloquent voices of Viret and 
Beza are heard here and there amid the ruins, claiming 
the rights of the Church of Jesus Christ, those sounds 
which have lasted for three centuries are, strangely 
enough, taken for modern words and theories of the 
day. 

Without doubt, there were relations between Church 
and State in Calvin's system ; but they were so little 
essential, that, two years since, at the time of our revo- 
lution, it was enough that a few voices recalled these 
principles of the Reform, to place these relations in im- 
minent danger of being broken. Let us, then, mark 
this, that, although there is now a recrudescence of na- 
tionality in some minds, though there are some honora- 
ble Christians who preach a blind submission, and who 
are opposed to allowing citizens and believers to re- 
quest respectfully in petitions that the liberty which has 

* The Classis is equivalent to our Presbytery ; the Colloquy to our Con- 
ference. — Trans. 

X 



242 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

been promised them by oath, and has been secured to 
them by the Constitution itself of their country, should 
be given them : still, let us mark this, that such a mode 
of acting is an invasion of Lutheranism, of a false Lu- 
theranism, as well as a great deviation from the princi- 
ples of the Reform. 

Freedom in matters of the Church, and in those of 
the State, is our antiquity ; this is our custom ; this is 
our tradition ; and we are its preservers. It would be 
a revolutionary deed to take from the Reform that noble 
love of freedom. 



It is time to close. 

" The Catholic Church," says Lange, " is the Church 
of Priests ; the Lutheran Church is that of Theologians; 
the Reformed Church is that of the Faithful." We ac- 
cept this definition, observing, nevertheless, that Lange's 
idea is, that the very Catholicism of the Reformed 
Church makes it attribute, both to doctors and pastors, 
the place belonging to them. 

Were it necessary to give a motto to the Reform, 
what ought to be inscribed on its banner ? I would 
choose this : 

Above, Grace. 

Below, Catholicism and Liberty. 

Grace, for its doctrine. Grace, in its fullness and its 
eternity, from the first movement of the regenerated 
heart to the entire accomplishment of its salvation. 

Catholicism and Liberty for the Church. 

Catholicism. Assuredly the Reformed Church pos- 
sesses it, for it has never ceased to make the great 
Christian union one of its most fervent desires, one of 
its dearest objects. It possesses it in a far higher de- 
gree than the self-styled Catholic Church, which has 



LUTHER A NISM AND CALVINISM. 243 

ever unhesitatingly cut off from its communion every 
man who has had any degree of truth and life. It did 
so to Jansenius, and almost to Fenelon. 

But if Grace is the sun of the Reform, and if Catholi- 
cism is one of its poles, Liberty is the other pole. Cath- 
olicism for that Church as a body, and liberty for its in- 
dividual members. Individuality and Catholicism are 
both equally essential to it ; and to rise against either 
of them is to cease to be Reformed. 

Thus, in the day when the Lord will bring His army 
together in holy solemnity, in the day when the body 
of Christ will unite its scattered members, the Reform- 
ed Church will advance, bringing, as a gift to the new 
Church, these three things, which will abide : Grace, 
Catholicism, Liberty. What other Church can bring 
so sublime an offering ? 

We say, then, in conclusion, let us be intelligent, 
faithful, and unchangeable sons of the Reform ; let us 
be such not only here, in Geneva, but in Lausanne, in 
Neuchatel, in all Switzerland, in France, in Holland, in 
Scotland, in England, in Germany, in America. The 
fate of the Church depends on this. 

Shall we forget our fathers, their principles, their 
struggles, their faithfulness, their blood ? While they 
took such care to preserve the Reform pure, not only 
in relation to Popery, but also in all its secondary as- 
pects, shall we lightly forsake the precious principles of 
their faith? Shall we walk over their tombs, treading 
under foot their bones, and scattering their ashes to the 
winds ? 

Doubtless, Lutheranism has its w T ork as well as we. 
Doubtless, Lutheranism and the Reform ought to walk 
hand in hand beneath the banner of Christ, to the con- 
quest of the world ; and, that we should do our ally the 



244 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

service which he has a right to expect of us, we must 
be ourselves. And are we that ? 

Ah ! He who wrote those revival letters to the seven 
churches of Asia, speaks to us also. Seeing how many 
there are whose " hands fall down, and whose knees are 
feeble,' , He exclaims to the Reform, " Hold that fast 
which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. That 
good thing which was committed to thee, keep by the 
Holy Ghost which dwelleth in thee."* 

The Reform is the Church of the present day ; the 
Confession of the present, as a German writer calls it.f 
Its special work, assigned to it by the Lord, is the bring- 
ing together of the nations. Let it, then, advance with 
freedom and courage in the world, and let it there ac- 
complish the sacred functions which it has received 
from the Most High ; and, as the sixteenth century was 
the century of a great separation, may the nineteenth 
become, through the prayers and labors of the Reform, 
the century of a great union. 

" I will make thee a pillar in the temple of my God." 

* Rev., iii, 11. 2 Tim., i., 14. 

f " Die Confession der Gegenwart"— LaNGE. 



THE STUDY OF THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 245 



XL THE STUDY OF THE HISTORY OF CHRIS- 
TIANITY, AND ITS USEFULNESS IN THE 
PRESENT DAY. 

A DISCOURSE.* 

Gentlemen, — My design is to address you on the 
History of the Reformation in Germany in the sixteenth 
century. Literature, the Sciences, the Arts, Philosophy, 
the Civil History of Nations, have been successively in 
this city, and in the midst of you, subjects of instruction 
by men justly celebrated. 

I invite you to a new field — the history of Christiani- 
ty. I ought, then, to assign the reasons of my choice. 
I ought to disclose the advantages which I discover in 
the study of that history at this epoch. 

You are, perhaps, at this very time, my justification. 
That we should believe it possible to fix the attention of 
men in our day on the history of the Christian religion ; 
that we should command an audience desirous of hear- 
ing it : this, gentlemen, is a sign of the times. It proves 
that men of the world, absorbed until now in the exteri- 
or forms, the ornaments, the splendid dress of nations, 
and of their history, have at length begun to consider 
what is, what ought to be their heart and life. 

And yet, who is it who dares to venture on this new 
career? Who dares to follow so many men, admirable 
for genius, profound in knowledge, and skillful in the art 
of speaking ; whose privilege it is to gather every win- 
ter in this city, an audience of every age, and of both 
sexes? Powerful must indeed be the motive which 

* Delivered at Geneva, January 2, 1832. This discourse was introducto- 
ry to a course of lectures on the history of the Reformation and the Reform- 
ers in the sixteenth century. 

X 2 



246 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

brings forward one who has been called, it is true, to 
preach the everlasting Gospel, but who has never yet 
ventured to speak, save in the sanctuary, and with the 
aid of that holy office which exalts the humblest, and 
animates the most feeble. 

This motive is the excellence of that study to which 
I invite you. 

There are, in the life of each man in particular, and of 
nations in general, three great elements, politics, letters 
(comprehending, of course, the sciences, the arts, and 
philosophy), and religion. And it might almost seem 
as though these three elements have appropriated to 
themselves the three great modifications of man. The 
political has engrossed his will and vigor of action. 
The literary, his intelligence and all the variety of his 
imaginations and thoughts. The religious, his heart and 
the energy of his affections. But religion, enthroned, as 
it were, in the center, extends over the whole man her 
scepter of power. 

There are then, according to these elements, three 
species of the history of man — the political, the literary, 
the religious. The History of Religion, it can not be 
denied, is the least cultivated in our day. How zealous- 
ly, on the contrary, do not men study political history, 
believing that they shall discover there, as augurs in the 
entrails of victims, the prognostics and the key of futuri- 
ty! How many systems of history, now picturesque, 
now philosophical, are passing in review before us ! 
How many eminent men, within our own walls, has not 
their narrative of national events immortalized ! With 
what ardor is not the history of letters studied ! Who 
has not read, again and again, the Lyceum of La Harpe, 
the works of Ginguene, of Schlegel, of De Stael, of Sis- 
mondi, and of so many others ? Still more is done. 
Each fashions this history for himself: he approaches 



THE STUDY OF THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 247 

these documents, these materials, so formidable in the 
other two departments ; he reads them, again and again, 
with delight, because they are the master-works of ge- 
nius. Every educated man examines, compiles, judges, 
creates an entire history of letters in his own mind. 

But as to the History of Christianity, who is engaged 
in that? Who studies it? A handful of our contem- 
poraries, if indeed so many. And yet I regard it as un- 
doubtedly the most worthy of the attention of men ; as 
that which, in our age, furnishes the most salutary les- 
sons, and in whose prophetic entrails we shall learn 
correctly what is sought in vain elsewhere. 

Perhaps this first sitting will be suitably employed in 
the endeavor, at the outset, to remove the prejudices en- 
tertained in our day against studying the History of 
Christianity ; and I shall afterward establish the use- 
fulness of this history in the present age of the world. 

One of the distinctive features of the past age was a 
spirit of profaneness and mockery. The History of 
Christianity was affected by it. This imposing edifice, 
which appeared as the work of ages, was assailed with 
sarcasms, that confounded in one sentence of condem- 
nation, Catholicism and Christianity, the Church of Men 
and the Church of God. The structure of Men, which 
might, perhaps, have resisted all serious assaults, soon 
crumbled with a loud crash, before the light breath of 
ridicule. But in its fall, it drew along with itself the 
power which had overturned it. Man passes not in 
vain through such a crisis. He acquired beneath the 
ruins a new temper. Baptized in blood, our age could 
no longer exist in the frivolous atmosphere of its prede- 
cessor. The profane La Harpe, in some respects the 
successor of Voltaire in the office of President of the 
anti-Christian League, came forth a Christian from the 
dungeons of the Revolution, into which he had been 



248 DISCOUESES AND ESSAYS. 

cast an unbeliever. The tempest of the Revolution has 
not, however, entirely swallowed up the impious spirit 
which roused it. Still does it subsist among us, although 
a stranger, perhaps, to the characteristic spirit of our age. 
The History of Christianity is still assailed by ridicule,, 
in which you may perhaps discover, at times, some grains 
of the wit of Aristophanes and Voltaire. That ridicule 
must leave some impression on light minds, which may 
thus, for a season at least, become indifferent to grave- 
and useful studies. It is not expected of me to answer 
sarcasms : one word suffices. Doubtless, ye scoffers of 
the age ! ye may find on this or that passage in the his- 
tory of religion, a brilliant quibble or heartless raillery; 
but there is in Christianity and its annals something be- 
yond your reach. History exhibits it as an angel, bear- 
ing from Asia to Europe, from Europe through the 
whole earth, and among all nations, light and life ; de- 
stroying evil every where in its course, and leavings 
every where the incorruptible seeds of good. Whoev- 
er has met with it has been healed by the salutary in- 
fluence which it sheds around. Before such achieve- 
ments of benevolence, the weapons of ridicule are im- 
potent. The pointed shafts of the scoffer never can de- 
stroy the work of God. Childish arrogance only could 
attempt it \ timid weakness only could fear it. 

There are men of a graver cast, though not less in- 
credulous, who attack with other arms the history of 
religion. What, they ask, can the History of Christian- 
ity reveal ? Why do you thus unadvisedly ransack its 
annals ? What can you derive from them I Christian- 
ity has been injurious to humanity. Man has been kept 
by it in swaddling clothes. Its influence on the civil 
and political state of nations has been unfavorable.. 
Such words afflict the soul by the deep ingratitude, the 
utter blindness from which they flow, We shall not 



THE STUDY OF THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 249 

even mention the blessings of Christianity in eternity, 
though these are its chief object, but shall stand on the 
very ground to which our adversaries challenge us* 
" Take," will we say to them, " a map : lay before us a 
statistical view of nations. Where is light, and where 
darkness ? Where is liberty, and where slavery? Do 
you not observe the shadows which rest on all the un- 
christianized states, and the light which covers Christian 
countries ? What is it that rends the black and polluted 
vail, which hung so long over the shores of Otaheite, of 
Eimeo, of Hawaii ? What but Christianity ? Take 
now a pencil ; mark by successive shadows the regions 
where knowledge, morality, religion, prevail the most. 
You will find but one progress, that of Christianity it- 
self. Wherever the Gospel shines the brightest, there 
will you behold most abundantly the chief blessings of 
humanity. The United States of America, Great Brit- 
ain, other Evangelical countries, where the light of the 
eternal word is shed in all its purity, will be at the top 
of the scale ; and the transient shades which lead us 
from Christian to heathen regions distinguish those por- 
tions of the earth where, though Christianity exists, it is 
stifled by the human elements commixed with it. But 
why have recourse to this geographical coup oVoeil? 
The history of Christianity will itself give the answer 
to your objections. There will it be seen elevating 
gradually, from age to age, the character of nations. 
Still more, it will there be discovered that even the cor- 
ruptions of Christianity, those against which you con- 
tend the most strenuously, have been useful to human- 
ity, whenever they have retained the least element of 
the religion of Jesus Christ. There will you behold 
those monasteries (the just objects of our reprobation), 
becoming, as it were, unconsciously, depositories for the 
preservation of so many ancient monuments of letters, 



250 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

amid the deluge of northern barbarians, and, when the 
flood had passed, again sending forth those treasures. 
But there you will especially behold that illustrious Ref- 
ormation, some of whose features I shall sketch, which 
delivered the human mind from the chains which had 
oppressed it, and which has become to the nations the 
dawn of a new day of light, evangelization, and life. 
In its history Christianity is every where exhibited as 
the friend of human nature. 

But you must confess, say other men of the age, that 
the history of Christianity reveals to us many things, in- 
trigues, wars, and the like, which can not but expose it, 
and diminish that respect which you demand for it. 
This we deny. Christianity is a divine work, and, of 
course, perfectly pure. Whatever has flowed from it- 
self is good. But, in descending from Heaven to Earth, 
from God to Man, it has suffered alloy. Christianity in 
man, and even in the holiest of men, is not Christianity 
in God, that is to say, in Jesus Christ. Impute not to 
God that of which Man only is guilty. The water 
which falls from heaven is pure, and even the purest of 
all, for it has been distilled in the wonderful apparatus 
of God. And yet scarcely has it touched the earth, 
when it is already defiled. How often, alas ! will the 
hardened heart of man not suffer the life-giving waters 
of Christianity to penetrate his bosom ? To those heav- 
enly influences how obstinately is it closed ! Man drives 
away religion from his heart, and is content to wear it 
without, as a cloak to his sins ; and then the vulgar dig- 
nify with the name of Christianity what is thus display- 
ed to their eyes ! History will rend this hypocritical 
mantle, and will reveal the passions which it hid, and 
which were the only moving cause in him who had en- 
veloped himself thus artfully. There will you see, for 
example, that those irreligious wars, called religious, 



THE STUDY OF THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 251 

sprang not from Christianity, but from the immediate 
influence of that very power of evil which Christianity 
came to destroy. There you will discover that those 
maxims of the governors, of the chiefs of the Church, 
which you justly condemn as disgraceful, were directed 
against the religion itself of Jesus Christ ; that this was 
the victim which they immolated, not the tongue which 
uttered them. History justifies Christianity, dissipates 
every cloud and every prejudice, and all the hatred 
wherewith man has been pleased to surround that sub- 
lime and heavenly image, which dwells in the midst of 
ages, and exhibits it to the admiration of men, in all its 
simplicity, innocence, beauty, and glory. 

If Christianity be innocent of all that is usually laid 
to its charge, at least, it will be said, the history of the 
Church is the most barren, the most destitute of life and 
emotion, and, consequently, the least interesting which 
can be imagined. Councils and decrees of councils, 
popes and bulls, metaphysical doctrines, subtile distinc- 
tions, scholastic systems, are not these ail that it offers? 
Doubtless it would be strange that the history of this 
kingdom of God, which its founder said should be a liv- 
ing seed, that would become a great tree, full of sap, 
and casting all around its beneficent shade ; or as leav- 
en, which should leaven the whole lump, that is, should 
communicate life to the world : that such a history 
should abound in unfruitfulness and subtil ty. Not so, 
for there are two histories. There is, if you please, 
what we shall call " the History of the Church," that is, 
of human institutions, forms, doctrines, and actions ; and 
" the History of Christianity," which has brought into 
the world, and still preserves, a new and divine life; 
the history of the government of that King who has 
said, " The words which I speak unto you are spirit and 
life ;" the history of that regenerative influence of Christ- 



252 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

ianity, through which so many individuals and nations- 
have experienced a thorough change in their moral and 
spiritual condition ; the history of that new and second 
creation, which fashions a people for God upon earth ; 
the history of that invisible Church, which is the assem- 
bly of the first-born.* Most historians, it is true, have 
hitherto presented only the barren history of the exte- 
rior Church, because they themselves were only the 
outward man, and had scarcely even imagined the life 
of the spiritual man. But is this a proof that it does 
not exist? Grant that human forms have destroyed 
this new dominion of truth, justice, and love which pro- 
ceeds from the Father. Because you see at first only a 
dry and hard shell, will you reject the delicious fruit 
which is concealed under this homely covering? In? 
seasons of barrenness and death, the Church could only 
have a lifeless and sterile history. But life* while de- 
scending to the Church of our day, has descended also 
into its history. Reserve your objections for those who* 
may continue to drag on in the barren field of rational- 
ism and human opinions. The old man sees in the field 
of the Church only dry bones. The new man there dis- 
cerns that spirit which blows from the four winds, and 
creates for the Eternal " an exceeding great army."f 
There is, then, a new history of Christianity — that which 
we have undertaken to unfold and defend, and not the 
history of human forms and barrenness. 

" Do you, then, imagine that you shall find in Christ- 
ianity life, elevation, generosity?" says a gloomy philos- 
ophy, which pretends that the individual good of each 
man ought to be the noblest object of his life. " What 
an illusion ! those remarkable actions, that self-sacrifice, 
of which the history of Christianity seems to furnish ex- 
amples, are but hidden passions, ambition, avarice, sens- 

* Heb., xii., 23. t Ezek., xxxvii., 10. 



THE STUDY OF THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 253 

uality, envy, covered with obvious veils — an egotism, 
somewhat more refined than that of the multitude. The 
only difference between the grossest of men and the he- 
roes of the Christian history is, that these know how to 
disguise somewhat more ingeniously the passions which 
governed them. And if all be not thus explained, a de- 
plorable fanaticism and enthusiasm will account for the 
rest." Such is the language that has been held, more es- 
pecially of the history which lam called to lay before you, 
and of the most illustrious characters which it presents to 
your view. Gloomy and hideous system ! which, only 
taking account of the corruption of man, is ignorant of 
those pure and sublime inspirations which proceed from 
the Spirit of God : a system which overturns the whole 
moral hierarchy, since the most dissolute and the most 
criminal of men would be at least sincere, by appearing 
such as they really are ; while the flower of humanity, 
men of disinterestedness and self-sacrifice, would be a 
band of deceivers and knaves, whose only aim would 
have been to conceal the disgraceful motives of their 
actions. Seriously to refute such a system would al- 
most be high treason against Divinity and humanity. 
The history of Christianity shall itself be, moreover, the 
most triumphant vindication. It will open to you the 
gates of a world different from that inhabited by the 
natural man. It will display to you a power which a 
narrow-minded philosophy can not comprehend. The 
majority of men comprehend nothing but materialism. 
Some more enlightened attain to rationalism. The his- 
tory of Christianity will carry us still higher. It will 
disclose to us spiritualism, which is the true, the primi- 
tive life of man, of which he was deprived, and which 
Christianity comes to restore. It will constrain us to 
acknowledge that life to be more certain, more real 
than rationalism, and even materialism. It will set be- 

Y 



251 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

fore us, and we shall almost touch with our hands, a 
strength of faith, which is given from above to man, and 
which overcomes the world and all the passions of the 
heart. It will teach us to discern two classes of men upon 
the earthy and will teach us to understand this profound 
thought, " The first man is of the earth, earthy ; but the 
second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, 
such are they also that are earthy ; and as is the heav- 
enly, such are they also that are heavenly."* 

" At least, however," it will be said, " it is certain and 
irrefutable, that the history of the Church most frequent- 
ly presents us with controversies, agitations, quarrels, 
wars. What interest would you have us take in such 
things ? How, indeed, could we esteem such a histo- 
ry?" Controversies, agitations, say you? And are 
such the motives for your contempt of the History of 
Christianity? But let me ask you, What beneficent 
principle, what fortunate conception for humanity has 
ever been established without agitation, without a strug- 
gle, without a conflict ? Philosophers ! had not your 
Galileo a contest to maintain while he was teaching the 
movements of the heavens ? and do not you honor him 
the more for it ? Literati ! had not your Corneille to 
endure discussion and criticism while he was creating 
the language and poetry of France? And you, ye 
Liberals of the age ! who, perhaps, chiefly assail the 
history of the religion of Jesus Christ : was your Mira- 
beau without combats in the tribune ? And when he 
blew the trumpet of new-born liberty, was the war, of 
which he sounded the signal, a short one ? or, rather, 
are we not now as between two armies of nations, in 
battle array against each other, brandishing with impa- 
tience the arms which must decide the victory ? And 
Christianity, which attacks man in his dearest passions, 

* 1 Cor., xv., 47, 48. 



THE STUDY OF THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 255 

though they are the very cause of his misfortunes, in 
his love of riches, his ambition, his vain-glory, in a word, 
in this inferior self, which man idolizes, and of which a 
sublimer self is the slave: shall this Christianity be alone 
exempt from struggles and contests? The burdened 
atmosphere is only purified by tempests, and the crisis 
of his disorder is deliverance to the sick. And, in like 
manner, that truth may possess the earth, she must 
combat hand to hand with error. But the end, the re- 
sult of Christianity, is peace. Peace upon earth ! Such 
was the cry from heaven when the earth received its 
Savior. We are marching onward to peace. Let us, 
then, march onward, if necessary, through the fire of 
battle. 

But I am deceived if the history of the religion of 
Jesus Christ do not present to you far other objects than 
agitations and troubles. It exhibits a phenomenon alto- 
gether unique, and to be found nowhere else. It offers 
to you peace in the midst of trouble ; meekness of spirit 
amid the conflagration of the passions. It will lead you 
to the sanctuary of the men of God ; and while around 
them agitations, conspiracies, and terrible cries prevail, 
you shall behold them calm, cheerful, and full of a 
peace which passeth all understanding. Satisfied with 
having borne witness to the truth, they have committed 
their cause to the Eternal, and remain tranquil and at 
rest, waiting on Him. Of this, the history of the Refor- 
mation, and of that of Luther in particular, will furnish 
you illustrious examples. The history of Christianity 
makes known the only real peace which has ever been 
upon earth. 

" Are not such studies," say respectable men, but of 
unsettled opinions, " at least fitted to confuse us on relig- 
ious subjects, to strip us of our faith, and to lead us into 
skepticisms and incredulity V There is nothing, after 



256 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

the word of God, better suited to save us from incredu- 
lity and superstition, and to attach us to true Christian- 
ity, than the history of the religion of Jesus Christ. 
Undoubtedly, if you take one ecclesiastical historian 
who presents a religion and the Church in popes and 
councils ; or another, who arrays them in a meager, 
natural theology, lightly shaded with Christianity, and 
in the barren instructions of human reason ; or another 
still, who exhibits them through metaphysical dogmas 
or scholastic distinctions, such would undoubtedly dis- 
gust you with what each would call religion. But 
where is the great evil ? Take, on the contrary, a his- 
torian, who presents to you the religion of Jesus Christ 
such as it is in reality, " The light and the life of the 
world." Such a history, 1 feel assured, would make you 
love that religion. There is still more. If other con- 
siderations have shaken your faith, this study will 
strengthen it. The enemies of religion, of Christianity, 
and of the Reformation in particular, will perhaps ex- 
claim that craft, enthusiasm, credulity or incredulity, 
have accomplished these two great revolutions in the 
world. They will tell you that men had not time to 
examine ; that they were accomplished by means of a 
commotion, from which mankind were astonished to 
find that they had come forth Christian and Protestant. 
Let us stretch forth the torch of history, and all these 
phantoms of a hostile imagination instantly vanish. 
Then do you see how every thing has been examined, 
discussed, tried ; how every inch of ground has been 
defended by the adversary? Abandoning the field of 
history, does he occupy that of reasoning? Are you 
gravely assured that Christianity is contrary to human 
reason? Are all those objections repeated, so much 
boasted of in our day, as the fruits of the advancement 
of the age, and aimed against religion itself, against the 



THE STUDY OF THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY* 257 

divinity of the Savior, salvation by grace, and the fall 
of man? History still has something to say. She 
teaches you that these are shafts, long since used and 
broken ; the ideas of Greek and pagan authors revived ; 
for she will point you to them in Celsus, and Porphyry* 
and Hierocles, Greek and heathen writers. On the one 
hand, history shows that all these objections, so vaunted 
in our day, were employed from the earliest ages against 
truth and the Church, which is its depository ; and, on 
the other hand, she shows you that very Church advan- 
cing unceasingly amid these assaults, growing, and ex- 
tending every where its benefits. Fear not, then ; for 
these assaults will no more injure the Church and arrest 
its progress now than they have hitherto. During 
eighteen centuries, the little prejudices of the human 
mind have accustomed it to these attacks ; and, with 
little or no anxiety on these subjects, the Church march- 
es onward through eighteen centuries to the triumph 
which her Head is preparing for her. 

But is there not reason to fear that the history of the 
Church, and of the Reformation in particular, may re- 
vive polemics, above all against the Roman Catholics^ 
and may re-open the wounds of the Western Church, as 
yet but- imperfectly healed? I believe the reverse. 
History will doubtless show us, in a general way, truth 
on one side, and error on the other. But she will also 
show us good and evil mixed here and there ; she will 
show us, on the side of the Catholics, many a true Christ- 
ian, although in some respects certainly but little en- 
lightened ; and on the side of the Protestants, many a 
man unworthy of that name. She will show us Catho- 
licism adding, without doubt, many things to the word 
of God, but preserving, nevertheless, most of the funda- 
mental doctrines of Christianity, the depravity of man, 
salvation through the atonement, the essential Divinity 

Y 2 



258 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

of the Redeemer, the indispensable work of the Holy- 
Spirit in the heart. And to pass thence to the history 
of the Reformation. I shall be a Protestant. I proclaim 
it before hand ; yet not as a sectarian, but as a Christian. 
I desire not to be unmindful of the respect which is due 
to men, in whose ranks have shone the names of Lau- 
rence de Bibra, Sadolet, Borromeo, Vincent de Paul, 
Pascal, Fenelon. It shall not be my province to strike 
Catholicism with redoubled blows: that was the affair 
of Luther's age ; it was done then, and is not the busi- 
ness of our age : but it shall be alone my object, if I 
can accomplish it, to invest with a touching influence 
the living principle which produced, in the sixteenth 
century, a great religious regeneration, and which must 
produce the same in our day. I shall notice the evil 
deeds of Protestants, when I meet them. I shall notice 
the good actions of Catholics, whenever I see them ; 
and perhaps a favorable trait, incidentally mentioned 
by a narrator (I can not say by a historian) of the Refor- 
mation, will soothe the mind more readily than apologies 
for Catholicism, in the mouth of one of its priests. 

But then, it is lastly said, you must confess that the 
study of Christianity is advantageous to theologians 
only, but that we have nothing to do with it ; that to us 
it is useless. I adopt the distinction : certainly it is not 
necessary to salvation; the knowledge of Jesus Christ 
is alone sufficient ; and if we were addressing those who 
were indifferent to all history, we should, perhaps, be 
less favorably situated for a reply. But we address an 
audience who have not neglected the literary and po- 
litical history of nations. We then say to you, Why 
should you reject that of Christianity ? If this concerns 
only divines, assuredly, political history is the province 
only of magistrates and princes. Whenever the members 
of councils of state, and of some other bodies, shall be 



THE STUDY OF THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 259 

the only students of civil history, I may understand that 
only ministers of the Gospel should devote themselves 
to religious history. If there be a history which you 
desire to study, ought not that of religion to stand first ? 
Of the three great elements of history — politics, letters, 
religion — is not religion the most universal, and that 
which ought, above all, to interest each member of so- 
ciety ? Had you not a soul and a God, before you had 
literary and political sympathies ? Is not religion para- 
mount in whatever is most dear and sacred in man? 
Let us grant that hitherto you have repelled religion as 
to yourselves, and that you desire to study that only 
which influences the destinies of man, is not Christianity 
the moving principle of political development, of intel- 
lectual labor ? What but this has given, and still gives, 
the most powerful influence to the social life, to the lit- 
erary genius of modern nations? The study of the 
History of Christianity useless ! Is not this saying, it is 
useless, in a steam-boat, to study the machinery which 
communicates motion to the whole vessel ; that it is 
sufficient to study the vessel itself, the planks and rig- 
ging, which that machinery impels ? The religion of 
Jesus Christ is the machine which moves the world. 

But this very usefulness of that religion, especially at 
this present time, remains to be laid before you. 

Jesus Christ founded in the midst of men a kingdom 
of God ; and thenceforward the history of the human 
race, composed, till then, but of scattered, unconnected 
fragments, possessed a center, to which every thing 
might and ought to be referred. This divine kingdom 
gave unity to the nations of the earth, and to their his- 
tory, and, through it, isolated members became a body. 

One of the noblest and most essential ideas of our 
age, as yet, perhaps, but indistinctly traced on many 
minds, but which must continually become more and 



260 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

more the fundamental thought of those who reflect and 
believe, is that in the new period now opening before 
us there will be no longer, so to speak, a personal his- 
tory of nations, but a great history of human nature. 
Our age is the center where the numerous threads from 
various points are united, and thence issue in one cord. 
And what is this new period but the fulfilment of the 
destinies of Christianity ? While some philosophers saw 
indistinctly but yesterday something of this vast cen- 
tralization of the races of men, Christianity, opening the 
annals of a people who had crucified their divine and 
Eternal Founder, exhibits there to the world the annun- 
ciation of this mighty event in the history of man, de- 
clared, two thousand years before its occurrence, to 
Abraham the Chaldean — " in thee shall all families of 
the earth be blessed"* — and proclaimed still more clear- 
ly, two hundred years after, by an old man to his chil- 
dren, around his death-bed, when, casting a prophetic 
look on the future, and announcing this Messenger, who 
was to issue from the midst of them, he adds, " unto Him 
shall the gathering of the people be."f Words of peace 
which that mysterious person, when He appeared here 
below, repeats to His disciples in language still more 
striking, if that be possible : " There shall be one fold 
and one shepherd." J The religions of antiquity render- 
ed impossible this vast assembly of nations. Like the 
languages of Babel, they were so many walls which 
separated nations from one another. The tribes of the 
earth worshiped only national gods — those gods only 
suited the nations who made them. They had no points 
of contact, none of sympathy with any other people. 
Falsehood has a thousand strange faces, not resembling 
each other. Truth only is one, and this only can unite 
all the races of men. The idea of a universal kingdom 

* Gen., xii., 3. t Gen., xlix., 10. % John, x., 16, 



THE STUDY OP THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 261 

of truth and holiness was a stranger to the ancient 
world ; and, if some sages had a vague and obscure 
presentiment of it, with them it was but a conception, 
without the possibility of their even imagining what 
might be its reality, Christ came and immediately ac- 
complished what the religions and sages of the world 
had not even been able to foresee. He founds a spirit- 
ual kingdom, to which all nations are called. He over- 
turns, according to the energetic language of His apos- 
tle, the barriers, the middle wall of partition which di- 
vided nations, and " hath made both one," " for to make 
in Himself of twain, one new man, so making peace."* 
Christianity is not, like the ancient religions, a doctrine 
adapted to a certain degree of development in nations; 
it is a truth from heaven, which is able at the same time 
to act on man under every grade of improvement and 
climate. It bestows on human nature, whatever may 
be its rudeness, or the diversities of changes which let- 
ters and philosophy may have produced, the principle 
of a new and truly divine life. And this life is to be at 
once the great means of development to all nations, and 
the center of their unity. With its appearance com- 
menced in the universe the only real cosmopolitism. 
Citizens of Judea, of Pontus, of Greece, of Egypt, of 
Rome, till then mutual enemies, embrace like brothers. 
Christianity is that tree of which the Scriptures speak, 
whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.f It 
acts at the same time on the most opposite states of so- 
ciety. It regenerates and vivifies the world, corrupted 
by the Csesars, and soon after softens and civilizes the 
barbarous hordes of the north ; and at this very time it 
produces similar effects on the citizens of London, Par- 
is, and Berlin, and on the savages of Greenland, Caf- 
fraria, and the Sandwich Islands. The net is cast over 

* Eph., ii., 14, 15. t Rev., xxii., 2. 



262 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

the whole earth, and the day cometh when a heavenly 
hand shall hold captive in it all the races of men. Ye 
have perceived, men of the age, that we are passing 
out of the period of nations, and entering on that of hu- 
man nature ; but fashion not for yourselves a paltry 
standard for the union of nations. A new hierarchy, 
with its common frame, can not be the bond of unity, 
nor political liberalism, which carries tempests and dis- 
cord in its bosom. Christ is this ensign of which the 
prophet speaks,* and around which " shall the gather- 
ing of the people be."f 

But while many in our day hail at this moment the 
dawn of a new reorganization, others, on the contrary, 
behold in it only an epoch of dissolution. And these 
two opinions, apparently opposite, are perfectly harmo- 
nious ; since dissolution must precede reorganization. 
The two great powers of man have been unable to re- 
solve the problem of human nature. The hierarchy 
had undertaken it, but failed, and the iron arm of Rome 
was broken. Human philosophy rushed into its place, 
and said, I will accomplish it ; but the disorder of the 
nations has increased in a frightful ratio. There re- 
mains the power of God, or Christianity, which already, 
while human power was making its trials, has laid every 
where the foundations of the new edifice : and it will 
succeed. Do you exclaim, that in our day men walk 
in uncertainty ? that all the doctrines for the welfare of 
nations are doubtful? It is true, that all does seem in 
our day to be dissolving. But, O man ! listen to thy 
Master, a master of eighteen centuries old, who has as- 
sisted more than once at the decline and elevation of 
nations, at the decomposition and recomposition of the 
world, and who has been the great organic principle of 
nations. Listen to what it has been, to know what it 

* Isai., xi., 12. t Gen., lxix., 10. 



THE STUDY OF THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 263 

will be ; and to what it has done, to know what it will 
do. Christianity is totally different from the religions 
of men. In these, it is man who gives strength to reli- 
gion ; in that, religion gives strength to man. While 
the republic was counting its days of glory, the gods of 
Rome shone with the greatest luster. But when cor- 
ruption had seized on domestic life, when personal am- 
bition and venality had assailed public life, religion, 
worm-eaten at the base, decays and disappears with 
them. Jupiter falls, and is buried under the ruins of his 
own Capitol. Christianity, on the contrary, independ- 
ent of man, remains firm amid the fall of nations (their 
annals testify this), and renews the world by its power. 
When all the social forms of humanity are destroyed, 
as at the epoch of the invasion of the Barbarians, the 
religion of Jesus Christ remains upright on their ruins, 
and her hand scatters amid the chaos that seed whence 
humanity shall rise anew. Fear not the mournful state 
of the world at this time. History, and especially that 
which we shall lay before you, demonstrates, that when 
corruption has extended its ravages the farthest over 
the world, the divine power of Christianity, which has 
not its roots in the entrails of human nature, rises with 
the greatest power. The Spirit of God is moving on 
the chaos, and out of it He will bring forth a new earth. 

But the history of Christianity will teach you, more- 
over, that this religion is the instrument which He has 
chosen to accomplish His work. It will exhibit her 
mode of action, not as a continued influence, but as a 
succession of struggles and combats. The essence of 
Christianity is conflict with the world ; and thus the 
true Church of Christ hath appeared from the beginning, 
as " militant" amid the nations. Already have two en- 
emies successively assailed her and been vanquished, 



£64 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

however easily they promised to crush her. At first, 
she had to combat without against the idolatry and 
vices of paganism. Paganism fell. But scarcely had 
this victory been gained, when the danger appeared in 
the bosom of the Church, While men slept, according 
to the parable of the Divine and Eternal Founder of 
Christianity, the enemy came and sowed tares among 
the wheat.* The evil continued to increase. The 
Church had been founded that man might seek for 
heaven in it, and there he sought only the world. 
Then the true Church shook off the dust of death. Ar- 
rayed, as it were, in an instant in the spiritual armor 
which God had prepared for her, she began a war, the 
most terrible, because intestine. Rome, vigorously as- 
sailed, tottered, and the crown fell from her head. This 
war we propose to lay before you. It remains for 
Christianity to obtain a final victory. An enemy, who 
is neither within nor without, as were the first two, or, 
rather, who is both at the same time, advances to the 
last assault. I refer to the unbelieving, anti-Christian 
spirit of the age. More powerful, more terrible still 
than the first two adversaries, he casts upon Christianity 
that look of disdain which the gods of the Capitol once 
cast on the citizen of Tarsus, in chains at their feet ; and 
which, fifteen centuries after, Leo and the magnificent 
court of the Medici- cast, with a smile, into the obscure 
cell of an Augustinian monk. Still more may be said : 
the anti-Christian spirit of the world, now lifting his 
banner so high, does not suspect the enemy which is to 
vanquish him. And yet he will be conquered ; and the 
formidable giant of the age, who defies the God of the 
armies of Israel, f struck in the forehead, shall fall with 
his face to the earth under the sling of the enemy whom 
he has despised. 

* Matt., xiii., 25. f 1 Sam., xvii., 45. 



THE STUDY OF THE HISTORY OP CHRISTIANITY. 265 

Is the question asked, By what arms shall this victory- 
be gained ? Here, again, the History of Christianity 
will give the answer. It shows you that this religion 
has twice regenerated the world, at least partially, by 
doctrines entirely its own. To pretend that the religious 
system, which is to accomplish the grand solution de- 
sired by all, consists of those general ideas of religion 
to be found in Rabbinical Judaism, in Mahommedanism, 
and even in Pagan Philosophy, is a strange error ; for 
these ideas never have produced the regeneration of the 
people who have known them. The power of Christianity 
lies in its peculiarity. It compels man to feel the astonish- 
ing contrast between his whole life and the law of its holi- 
ness. It produces in him the desire of deliverance from 
so miserable a condition. It reveals to him the magnifi- 
cent work, which the mercy of a God has accomplished 
for his rescue, in the death of the Cross. It proclaims, 
by the command of the King of the world, an entire 
amnesty through all the world. Now, we maintain two 
things. First, that this news of a full pardon, of a per- 
fect amnesty, proclaimed upon earth, that rebellious 
province of the empire of the King of kings, is alone 
capable of touching, of changing the heart of man, and 
of inclining him, through love, to obey the Sovereign 
who reclaims him. Ye politicians of the age, what ad- 
vice would you give to a king for the establishment of 
peace and subordination in the midst of a rebellious peo- 
ple 1 Classifications, conditions, scaffolds, or a generous 
amnesty without reserve, calculated to win ail hearts ? 
And we maintain, secondly, that the submission of the 
heart to God, the inward power of Christianity, is the 
only power which can now heal the diseases of nations. 
Every bond is broken. Selfishness and the spirit of 
censure are universal. There are but two methods for 
the re-establishment of order and peace among the rising 

Z 



266 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

and agitated masses : exterior and violent measures of 
compression ; or the interior persuasive power of Christ- 
ianity. What do I say ? There is but one ; for as to 
the first, all nations have shown its inefficiency. Three 
days have sufficed. By destroying selfishness, and 
planting in the hearts of all the love of God and the love 
of man, Christianity alone will resolve the great prob- 
lem, and establish liberty among the nations, with order 
and peace. These truths, taught by the nature of things, 
history will confirm. As to the first, she will disclose 
to us the unheard-of power of Christianity. She will 
prove to us that these doctrines can accomplish an act- 
ual second birth of human nature. And as to the sec- 
ond, cotemporaneous history shall instruct us. Inquire 
of her in what nations order and liberty are the most 
closely united, and she will answer by pointing to the 
countries where the Gospel is the most openly proclaim- 
ed, the most universally believed. But, above all, his- 
tory will show that a power not of man hath produced 
those partial regenerations, which are symbols and pre- 
cursors of that universal regeneration announced by 
Christianity. Call this power God, or the Spirit of God, 
or even Providence — the name is of little consequence; 
the fact is certain — something hath descended from 
heaven. Such is the present state of the world, that 
whoever believes not in this power, as independent of 
the world, may well despair. But, for ourselves, nothing 
terrifies us. " Give me," said Archimedes, " a place to 
stand on, and I will move the earth." Christianity is 
that point beyond the world from which it shall be one 
day entirely displaced, and shall revolve on a new axis 
of righteousness and peace. Then shall be poured out 
on all nations a mighty influence of the Spirit of God. 
Such are the most ancient promises. The Trojan war 
had just closed, and Rome was not yet founded, when, 



THE STUDY OF THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 267 

in the midst of the people to whom God had intrusted 
the germs of religion for all the nations of the earth, 
these prophetic words resounded : " Until the Spirit be 
poured upon us from on high," " and the work of right- 
eousness shall be peace."* 

Do you desire to know the obstacles which this reno- 
vation of human nature has to encounter, so that you may 
wisely remove them? The History of Christianity will 
point them out. They have been the same at all times. 
A wisdom, shall I say, or a folly, altogether earthly and 
carnal, which ridicules Divine things, and would contract 
God and His kingdom to the narrow dimensions of its 
own scale : a priestly despotism, which claims alone 
the privilege of managing heavenly things, which turns 
a deaf ear to examination and research into the Divine 
word, and materializes religion : a fanaticism which op- 
poses, with all its might, the knowledge of the truth ; 
which being hostile to liberty, would silence those who 
utter it ; which labors to arm public opinion against 
Christianity and Christians — whatever may be the name 
which this fanaticism bears, such as Jewish, Pagan, 
Dominican, or falsely, liberal and philosophic — such are 
the principal obstacles which the History of Christiani- 
ty exhibits. 

Do you ask with the age for movement, for progress ? 
History will show you that Christianity is the religion 
of progress, and that she calls man, by continual ad- 
vancements, to the liberty and the glory of the children 
of God. Let us carefully remark that there are only 
two spheres in which advancements can be made, viz., 
in the religion destined to renew mankind, or in man 
himself called to be renewed. The man of our age as- 
cribes this progress to religion; religion, to man himself. 
Christianity came forth perfect from God, and is un- 

* Isai., xxii., 15, 17. 



268 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

changeable as its author. Thou, O man ! art thus con- 
tinually to advance ; and in like manner, that immense 
Christian Society which the truth enlightens. The sun 
is not itself advancing to perfection, but is ever perfecting 
the shrub, which, receiving life from it, becomes a ma- 
jestic tree. It is the same with Christianity and man. 
The Gospel places the goal, toward which that Christ- 
ian Society ought to tend, beyond the veil which sepa- 
rates the two worlds. Thus, the Gospel summons so- 
ciety to a progress incomparably beyond all that human 
systems demand, and assigns a task which can only be 
accomplished in eternity. 

Will you speak of enlightenment? Will you say that 
we have reached an age too full of light for the triumph 
of Christianity ? The history of Christianity will show 
you that she fears not that light, though frequently a 
false one. I shall not speak of the present epoch, when 
she lifts her head with more energy than ever. This 
age, at least, ought to be out of the question. I shall 
not speak of the Reformation, preceded for half a cen- 
tury by the great events which signalized the revival of 
letters : we shall soon attend to it. But consider what 
the history of Christianity records on its first leaf. The 
age of Augustus, when Jesus was born, is among the 
most brilliant in the annals of mankind. Christianity 
chose the noonday for its appearance. A religious 
system which had lasted as long as the nation w r as 
crumbling under the assaults of the reason of the age ; 
and at that moment Christianity presents itself to be, in 
like manner, examined and assailed. The raillery of the 
man of wit, the assaults of eloquence, the protracted 
warfare of philosophy and learning, it challenges all ; it 
sustains the shock, and nothing moves it. On the con- 
trary, it advances, it leads the thoughts captive, in obe- 
dience to the God whom it announces ; and in celestial 



THE STUDY OF THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 269 

triumph on the theatre of human glory, it often numbers 
around its car those who had been the most formidable 
of enemies. Christianity is the true light : it is the sun 
which rises above all the lights of this lower sphere. "I 
am the light of the world," said Jesus Christ. 

Lastly, will the age speak of the future ? Will at- 
tention be vouchsafed to a doctrine only so far as it re- 
lates to the future ? The future belongs to Christianity. 
She claims not to-day or yesterday, like the ephemeral 
prophets of our day. She said so four thousand years 
ago. The seventeenth century was that of the past ; 
the eighteenth is that of the present ; the nineteenth is 
that of the future, and this belongs to Christianity. Men, 
if enlightened and sincere, can no longer continue stran- 
gers to the ancient promises of the future, laid up in the 
book of the nations. Following out in history the ac- 
complishment of the oracles of God, they will arrive at 
those which declare that "the earth shall be full of the 
knowledge of the Lord," that " His rest shall be glori- 
ous."* Ever since the men who were the heralds of 
God uttered these words all has been advancing, and 
all are now moving onward to their glorious fulfillment. 
Christianity is on her march, and she will never retreat. 
Her work is scarcely rough-hewn ; but she will finish 
it. She will bring about a great revolution on earth, 
which shall change its very being. The times are not 
perhaps very distant when its destinies will be acceler- 
ated. A new history commences. Christ opens to 
the world the gates of a new future. " Great voices" 
shall be one day heard, as a prophet tells us, saying, 
" the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms 
of our Lord and of His Christ."f 

These are my reasons for maintaining that the histo- 

* Is., xi,, 9, 10. t Rev., xi., 15. 

Z 2 



270 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

ry of Christianity is the most important of all historical 
studies; not only in general, but particularly with a 
view to the present epoch. Christianity holds in her 
hands the future destinies of the world. She bears in 
herself the regenerative force that will renew the na- 
tions, the bond which must unite them. Here is that 
beneficent power which will spread over the earth and 
establish righteousness, liberty, and peace. O ye men 
of the age ! there only may you learn the direction 
which you ought to give to all your efforts and labors. 
Study in the past the history of that which must accom- 
plish such great results in the future. Dedicate to this 
study your spirit of research and your profound medita- 
tions. Set the example of abandoning the beaten track 
of the world, and of seeking light, life, the future, where 
only they are found. Young men who hear me, be the 
first to comprehend the calling of the new generation : 
receive first for yourselves the light which Christianity 
has kindled, and then go forth the beacon fires of the 
nations. 

I am now to ask your attention to the history of the 
Reformation in Germany, or, at least, of the most im- 
portant period of that history. Perhaps you will in- 
quire what has led me to solicit that subject, and what 
circumstances have induced this narrative. I saw Ger- 
many, and loved her for the sake of this excellent work, 
which I propose as my theme. The Reformation, at 
the festival of its third centennial jubilee, welcomed me 
on the road, and in the Germanic cities, on my arrival 
in 1817. I recall (and not without some pain, when I 
reflect how far from them was the spirit of the Reforma- 
tion) those bands of students, who flocked to the famous 
antique castle of Wartburg, where we shall one day, in 
the course of my review, behold Luther a captive. I 
love to believe that those youths were rather indiscreet 



THE STUDY OF THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 271 

than guilty ! I well remember how the gates of that 
ancient fortress (to which those young Germans were 
ascending in solemn procession) opened immediately 
before me at the name of Geneva ; and the emotions re- 
vive which Inexperienced when I found myself in the 
prison-chamber of Luther. I remember those melodi- 
ous strains which, some days after, announced the fes- 
tival within the walls of Leipsic, descending, before the 
dawn of day, from the summit of the invisible towers of 
the churches, as though they had been music from heav- 
en. Again, I met the Reformation in illustrious teach- 
ers at Berlin. I shall name only Neander, the father 
of the new history of Christianity, Neander, whose ten- 
der affection is so dear to my heart, and who has raised 
up in Germany that Christian instruction to which other 
friends, his juniors, the Tholucks and the Hengstenbergs, 
now impart life with all the strength of their faith. 
Again, I found it on the borders of the Elbe, in the 
midst of the kindred and friends of the simple, yet pro- 
found Claudius of Wandsbeck, and of the sublime poet 
of " The Messiah." Again, I found it in the ancient and 
Catholic Brabant itself, near the throne on which sat 
the descendant of the Nassaus, the heir of the Silent, 
that noble hero of the Reformation of the Low Coun- 
tries. There the earth soon trembled beneath my feet.* 
The throne which it bore crumbled at the sound of the 
fill of another throne. A Queen of Cities became, dur- 
ing four days, the bloody field of horrible combats. 
There I was a witness, and nearly a victim of unspeak- 
able calamities. I returned to our mountains, after an 
absence of fourteen years, desiring, if God should give 
me adequate strength, to speak amid my countrymen 
of those admirable things whose glory and influence 

* Allusion is hero made to the revolution, in September, 1830, in Brus- 
sels, and the overthrow of the united kingdoms of Holland and Belgium. 



272 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS, 

met me every where. Perhaps those noble, correct, 
and liberal manners, whose charm I experienced in a 
foreign land, have not been found by me in all at home. 
Subject, however, myself to human frailties, I shall know 
how to excuse, and not to condemn them in others. I 
promise, then, a cordial welcome to all who are disposed 
to hear my simple narrative. We shall survey together 
the plains of Mansfeld, the cells of Erfurt, the halls of 
Wittemberg, the palaces of Augsburg, of Leipsic, and 
of Worms. You will behold the Reformation. You 
will examine all things. You will not suffer the yoke 
of man to rest on your necks. I have seen Wittem- 
berg, I have seen the land where the despotism of Rome 
perished ; let us not bow down before the despotism of 
the age. A freeman myself, I seek after freemen ; and 
I believe I have found them. May the divine blessing 
rest on my narrative ! May words be vouchsafed to 
me suitable to spread true light and true liberty ! and 
while I am relating to you the history of a great event 
in the kingdom of God, may the image of Christ, the 
King of the Church, grow unceasingly before your eyes 
and in your hearts ! 



GENEVA AND OXFORD. 273 



XII. GENEVA AND OXFORD. 

A DISCOURSE.* 

" Two systems of doctrine are now, and probably for the last time, in con- 
flict—the Catholic and Genevan." — Dr. Pusey's Letter to the Archbishop of 
Canterbury. 

Gentlemen, — I am in the habit, at the opening of the 
course of lectures in our Seminary, of calling your at- 
tention to some subject peculiarly appropriate to the 
wants and the circumstances of the times. Several such 
subjects now present themselves to our consideration. 

And first of all, there is one which is appropriate to 
every year and to every day, one which concerns the 
very nature of this Seminary. It has none of those tem- 
poral sources of prosperity, of endowment, and of power 
which nourish other institutions ; it can exist only as a 
plant of God ; it can be nothing excepting just as the 
Spirit of God — like the sap — diffuses itself, without ces- 
sation, through the principal branches, and through even 
the least of its twigs ; adorning the whole tree with 
leaves, with flowers, and with fruit. Gentlemen, Pro- 
fessors, and Students, we are those twigs and branches. 
Oh ! that we may not be barren and withered branches ! 

There is another subject which begins greatly to oc- 
cupy the most distinguished minds ; it is the question 
whether the Church ought to depend upon the civil gov- 
ernment, or ought to have a government of its own, hav- 
ing no dependence, in the last resort, but upon Christ 
and His word. Without entering here into this im- 
portant subject, I would indicate two opposite move- 
ments, which are at this moment simultaneously taking 

* Delivered at the opening of the Session of the Theological Seminary, 
in October, 1842. 



274 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

place under our eyes in the world ; the one in theory, 
the other in practice. On the one hand, an admirable 
work, the production of one of the most profound think- 
ers of our age, Mr. Vinet,* leads some reflecting minds 
to acknowledge the independence of the Church ; and, 
on the other, many people are uniting themselves with 
new zeal around the institutions of the government; so 
that there are all around us convictions and movements 
which seem to carry away the people of our day by 
contrary currents. It is thus that a student of Geneva 
has just written to us, that the refusal to grant to him 
the exemption from military duty, which the law stipu- 
lates in favor of students in Theology, will oblige him 
to quit our school. We will always respect authority, 
but we can not refrain from remarking, that if, as all 
parties maintain, there has been a radical revolution in 
Geneva this year, that revolution has not, assuredly, 
tended to establish among us that equality and that re- 
ligious liberty, without which all other liberty is but a 
useless and dangerous plaything. However, it is in 
France, above all, that this movement is taking place. 
A French student writes to us, in a strain of affecting 
regret, that he has united again with the Established 
Church. When young men, after having pursued, in our 
Preparatory School, those primary studies which pre- 
sent so many difficulties, desire to secure to themselves, 
by certain measures, a prospect of greater ease, or even 
to abandon our Institution for the purpose of placing 
themselves in one sustained by government, from which 
Unitarian and Rationalist doctrines have been banished, 
we shall be happy to think that we have been able to 
prepare them in part, with the aid of God our Savior, 
for the work of the ministry, and we shall follow them 
in their career with the same affection, and, we hope, 

* Essai sur la Manifestation des Convictions Religieuses. Paris, 1842. 



GENEVA AND OXFORD. 275 

with the same prayers. But we ourselves, gentlemen, 
will make no advances to the political governments; 
we believe that oursole resource is with the Government 
of Heaven ; and knowing the faithfulness of Christ to- 
ward those who seek only His glory, assured that there 
is a place for whomsoever He calls to preach His Gos- 
pel, we will ask of Him the confidence that we, teachers 
and pupils, ought to have in His love, and to make us 
all continue to walk by faith, and not by sight. 

The circumstances even of the Church in our country 
might also occupy our attention. Alas ! we have play- 
ed this year the part of Cassandra. In vain have we 
presented, as well as we could, the correct principles of 
ecclesiastical government ; in vain, especially, have we 
shown that the elders of the Church ought to be chosen 
by the people of the parishes assembled in their places 
of worship, with their pastors, after having invoked the 
name of God, and not by municipal councils, over which 
magistrates preside ; our words, for a moment heard, 
have in the end been in vain. We have witnessed a 
very strange spectacle ; we have seen ecclesiastics, men 
in other respects truly enlightened, and possessing un- 
doubted talent, apparently afraid of their parishes, and 
employing their powerful influence to cause the rulers 
of the Church to be elected, not by the Church, but by 
the magistrates charged to watch over the maintenance 
of the roads and public edifices. And now that this 
election has been made, what do people say ? Surpris- 
ing thing ! Exclamations of astonishment and grief 
are heard, that the political. bodies to which some have 
wished to intrust the ecclesiastical elections, cost what 
it might, have made those elections political ; the fall of 
the Church is predicted, men are now occupied with 
those who are destined infallibly to share the spoils^ 
* See the Courier of Geneva of the 84th Sept., 1842, 



276 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

and nothing can equal the zeal which has been employ-" 
ed to bring about this change, unless it be the grief 
which has been manifested when, as we predicted, its 
inevitable results have been discovered. Behold, gen- 
tlemen, how far men may be led by ignorance of the 
first principles of ecclesiastical government on the part 
of those who administer the Church, whatever may be, 
in other respects, their illumination, their morality, or 
their patriotism. 

If we look beyond this Seminary, beyond this city, 
into the religious world in general, there are other sub- 
jects which present themselves to our view. It is thus 
that we see pious men, seduced, without doubt, by many 
truths mixed up with strange errors, receive a system 
coming from a city in England,* which teaches that 
there is no more Church, although Jesus has promisedf 
that " The gates of hell shall not prevail against it ;" 
and that there ought to be no more pastors and teach- 
ers, although revelation declares to us, that Christ Him- 
self has established " Pastors and teachers for the per- 
fecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the 
edifying of the body of Christ." J 

But, gentlemen, there is another error : it is that which 
is found at the other extremity of the theological line, 
and which I intend now to indicate to you. In the bo- 
som of a University in England, that of Oxford, has 
grown up an ecclesiastical system which interests and 
justly grieves all Christendom. It is now some time 
since some laymen, whom I love and respect, came to 
me to ask me to write against that dangerous error. I 
answered that I had neither the time, nor the capacity, 
nor the documents necessary for the task. But if I am 

* Plymouth. Those who are called " Plymouth brethren" are here re- 
ferred to. 

t Matt., xvi., 4. t Eph., iv., 11, 12. 



GENEVA AND OXFORD. 277 

incapable of composing a dissertation, I can at least 
show in a few words how I regard it. It is even my 
duty to do so, since excellent Christians ask it of me ; 
and it is that which has determined me to choose this 
subject for the present occasion. 



Let us clearly comprehend the position which Evan- 
gelical Christian Theology occupies. 

At the epoch of the Reformation, if I may so speak, 
three distinct eras had occurred in the history of the 
Church. 

1. That of Evangelical Christianity, which, having its 
focus in the times of the apostles, extended its rays 
throughout the first and second centuries of the Church. 

2. That of Ecclesiastical Catholicism, which, com- 
mencing its existence in the third century, reigned till 
the seventh. 

3. That of the Papacy, which reigned from the sev- 
enth to the fifteenth century. 

Such were, then, the three grand eras in the history 
of the Church ; let us see what characterized each one 
of them. 

In the first period, the supreme authority was attrib- 
uted to the revealed word of God. 

In the second, it was, according to some, ascribed to 
the Church as represented by its bishops. 

In the third, to the pope. 

We acknowledge cheerfully that the second of these 
systems is much superior to the third ; but it is inferior 
to the first. 

In fact, in the first of these systems, it is God who 
rules. 

In the second, it is Man. 

In the third, it is, to speak after the apostle, " That 
A A 



278 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying 
wonders."* 

The Reformation, in abandoning the Papacy, might 
have returned to the second of these systems, that is, to 
Ecclesiastical Catholicism ; or to the first, that is, to 
Evangelical Christianity. 

In returning to the second, it would have gone half 
way. Ecclesiastical Catholicism is, in fact, a middle 
system — a via media, as one of the Oxford doctors has 
termed it, in a sermon lately published. On the one 
hand, it approaches much to Papacy, for it contains, in 
the germ, all the principles which are there found. On 
the other, however, it diverges from it, for it rejects the 
Papacy itself. 

The Reformation was not a system of the juste milieu. 
It went the whole length ; and, rebounding with that 
force which God gives, it fell, as with a single leap, into 
the Evangelical Christianity of the apostles. 

But there is now, gentlemen, a numerous and power- 
ful party in England, supported even by some bishops 
(whose charges have filled us with astonishment and 
grief), which would, in the opinion of its adversaries, 
quit the ground of the Evangelical Christianity to plant 
itself upon that of Ecclesiastical Catholicism, with a 
marked tendency toward the Papacy ; or which, ac- 
cording to what it pretends, would faithfully maintain 
itself on that hierarchical and semi-Romish ground, 
which is, according to it, the true, native, and legitimate 
foundation of the Church of England. It is this move- 
ment which is called, after one of its principal chiefs, 
Puseyism. 

" The task of the true children of the Catholic Church," 
says the British Critic (one of the journals which are 
the organs of the Oxford party), " is to unprotestantize 

* 2 Thess., ii., 9. 



GENEVA AND OXFORD. 279 

the Church." " It is necessary," says one of these doc- 
tors,* " to reject entirely, and to anathematize the prin- 
ciple of Protestantism, as being that of a heresy, with 
all its forms, its sects, and its denominations." " It is 
necessary," says another, in his posthumous writings,! 
* to hate more and more the Reformation and the Re- 
formers." 

In separating the Church from the Reformation, this 
party pretends to wish, not to bring the Church back to 
the Papacy, but to retain it in the juste milieu of Eccle- 
siastical Catholicism. However, the fact is not to be 
disguised that, if it were forced to choose between what 
it considers two evils, it would greatly prefer Rome to 
the Reformation. 

Men highly respectable for their knowledge, their 
talents, and their moral character, are to be found among 
these theologians ; and we must acknowledge that the 
fundamental want which seems to have decided this 
movement is a legitimate one. 

There has been felt in England, in the midst of all 
the waves which now heave and agitate the Church, a 
want of antiquity ; and men have sought a rock, firm 
and immovable, on which to plant their feet. 

This want is founded in human nature ; it is also jus- 
tified by the social and religious state of the present 
time. I myself thirst after antiquity. 

But do the Oxford divines satisfy, for themselves and 
for others, these wants of the age ? 

I am convinced of the contrary. What a juvenile 
antiquity is that before which these eminent men pros- 
trate themselves ! It is the young and inexperienced 
Christianity of the first ages that they call ancient ; it 
is to the child that they ascribe the authority of the old 
man. If the question be one respecting the antiquity 

* Mr. Palmer. t Mr. Froude. 



280 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

of humanity, certainly we are more ancient than the 
Fathers, for we are fifteen or eighteen centuries older 
than they ; it is we who have the light of experience 
and the maturity of gray hairs. 

But no ; it is not respecting such an antiquity that 
there can be any dispute in divine things. The only 
antiquity to which we hold is that of the " Ancient of 
Days ;"* " of Him who, before the mountains were 
brought forth, or ever He had formed the earth and the 
world, even from everlasting to everlasting, is God." 
It is " He who is our refuge from age to age."f The 
truly ancient document to which we appeal is that 
" word which is settled forever in heaven,"J and "which 
shall stand forever."§ This, gentlemen, is our antiquity. 

Alas ! that which most afflicts us respecting the learned 
divines of Oxford is, that, while the people who surround 
them hunger and thirst after antiquity, they themselves, 
instead of leading them to the ancient testimony of the 
" Ancient of Days," only conduct them to puerile nov- 
elties. What novelties, in truth, and what faded nov- 
elties ! that purgatory, that human forgiveness, those 
images, those relics, that invocation of the saints which 
these divines would restore to the Church !|| What an 
immense and monstrous innovation is that Rome to 
which they w r ould have us return ! 

Who are the innovators ? I demand ; those who say, 
as we do, with the eternal word, " God hath begotten 
us of His own will, with the word of truth,"^j or those 
who say, as do the " Tracts for the Times," " Rome is 
our mother ; it is by her that we have been born to 
Christ?" those who say, as we do, with the eternal 
word, " Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you 

* Dan., vii., 13. f Psalm xc, 1,2. % Ibid., cxix., 89. 

§ Isai., xl., 8. [| Tracts for the Times, No. 90, Art. 6. 

1T James, i., 18. 



GENEVA AND OXFORD. 281 

an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living 
God,"* or those who say, as do these divines, " In losing 
visible union with the Church of Rome, we have lost 
great privileges?"! Certainly, the divines of Oxford 
are the innovators. 

The partisans of Rome, that grand innovation in 
Christendom, are not so easily deceived ; they hail in 
these new divines advocates of Romish novelties. The 
famous Romish Doctor Wiseman writes to Lord Shrews- 
bury, " We can certainly rely on a prompt, zealous, and 
able co-operation in bringing the Church of England to 
obedience to the See of Rome. When I read in their 
chronological order the writings of the theologians of 
Oxford, I see in the clearest manner that these divines 
are approximating, from day to day, to our holy Church, 
both in doctrine and in sympathy. Our saints, our 
popes, become more and more dear to them ; our rites, 
our ceremonies, and even the festivals of our saints and 
our days of fasting, are precious in their eyes, more 
precious, alas ! than in the eyes of many of our own 
people." 

And do not the Oxford divines, notwithstanding their 
protestations, concur in this view of the matter when 
they say, " The tendency to Romanism is, in reality, 
only a fruit of the profound desire which the Church, 
greatly aroused, experiences to become again, as the 
Savior left her, One."{ 

Such, gentlemen, is the movement which is taking 
place in that Church of England, which so many pious 
men, so many Christian works, have rendered illustri- 
ous. Dr. Pusey had good reason to say, in his letter to 
the Archbishop of Canterbury, " Upon the issue of the 
present struggle depend the destinies of our Church*'* 

* Heb., iii., 12. f British Critic. 

Letter of Dr. Pusey to the Archbishop of Canterbury, 

A a 2 



282 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

And it is worth while for us to pause here a few mo- 
ments to examine what party we ought to prefer, as 
members of the ancient Church of the Continent, and 
what we have to do in this grave and solemn crisis. 

Gentlemen, we ought to profess frankly that we will 
have neither the Papacy, nor the via media of Ecclesi- 
astical Catholicism, but will remain firm upon the foun- 
dation of Evangelical Christianity. In what consists 
this Christianity, when it is opposed to the two other 
systems which we reject? 

There are things essential and things unessential in 
it ; but it is only of that which constitutes its essence, 
of that which is its principle, that I would here speak. 

There are three principles which form its essence : 
the first is what we may call its formal principle, be- 
cause it is the means by which this system is formed or 
constituted ; the second is what may be called the ma- 
terial principle, because it is the very doctrine which 
constitutes this religious system ; the third I call the 
personal, or moral principle, because it concerns the 
application of Christianity to the soul of each individual. 

The formal principle of Christianity is expressed in 
few words : 

THE WORD OF GOD ONLY. 

That is to say, the Christian receives the knowledge 
of the truth only by the word of God, and admits of no 
other source of religious knowledge. 

The material principle of Christianity is expressed 
with equal brevity : 

THE GRACE OF CHRIST ONLY. 

That is to say, the Christian receives salvation only 
by the grace of Christ, and recognizes no other merito- 
rious cause of eternal life. 



GENEVA AND OXFORD. 283 

The personal principle of Christianity may be ex- 
pressed in the most simple terms : 

THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT ONLY. 

That is to say, there must be in each soul that is 
saved a moral and individual work of regeneration 
wrought by the Spirit of God, and not by the simple 
concurrence of the Church,* and the magic influence 
of certain ceremonies. 

Gentlemen, recall constantly to your minds these 
three simple truths : 

The Word of God only ; 
The Grace of Christ only ; 
The Work of the Spirit only ; 

and they will truly be "a lamp to your feet and a light 
to your paths." 

These are the three great beacons which the Holy 
Spirit has erected in the Church. Their effulgence 
should spread from one end of the world to the other. 
So long as they shine, the Church walks in the light ; as 
soon as they shall become extinct, or even obscured, 
darkness, like that of Egypt, will settle upon Christen- 
dom. 

But, gentlemen, it is precisely these three fundamental 
principles of evangelical Christianity which are attacked 
and overthrown by the new system of Ecclesiastical 
Catholicism. It is not to some minor point, to some 
doctrine of secondary importance, that attention is di- 
rected at Oxford ; it is to that which constitutes the 
very essence of Christianity and of the Reformation, to 
those truths which are so important that, as Luther 

* The words which are used in the French are adjonction de VEglise, and 
are employed to express that additional, or concurrent influence, which the 
Church is believed by the Puseyites to exert in regeneration by her minis- 
tration. — Trans. 



284 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

said, " With them the Church stands, and without them 
the Church falls." Let us consider them. 

I. 

The formal principle of evangelical Christianity is 
this: 

THE WORD OF GOD ONLY. 

He who would know and possess the truth, in order 
to be saved, ought to study that revelation of God which 
is contained in the sacred Scriptures, and to reject every 
thing which is a mere human addition, every thing 
which, as the work of man, may be justly suspected of 
being impressed with a deplorable mixture of error. 
There is one only source at which the Christian quench- 
es his thirst ; it is that stream, clear, limpid, perfectly 
pure, which flows from the throne of God. He turns 
away from every other fountain which flows parallel 
with it, or which would fain mingle itself with it ; for 
he knows that on account of the source whence these 
streams issue, they all contain troubled, unwholesome, 
perhaps deadly waters. 

The sole, the ancient, the eternal stream, is God ; the 
new, ephemeral, failing stream, is man ; and we will 
quench our thirst but in God alone. God is, in our 
view, so full of sovereign majesty, that we would regard 
as an outrage, and even as impiety, the attempt to put 
any thing by the side of His word. 

But this is what the authors of the novelties of Oxford 
are doing. " The Scriptures," say they, in the Tracts 
for the Times, " are evidently not, according to the 
principles of the Church of England, the Rule of Faith. 
The doctrine, or message of the Gospel, is but indirectly 
presented in the Scriptures, and in an obscure and con- 
cealed manner."* " Catholic tradition " says one of the 

* Tract 85 



GENEVA AND OXFORD. 285 

two principal chiefs of this school,* " is a divine inform- 
er in religious things ; it is the unwritten word. These 
two things (the Bible and the Catholic traditions) to- 
gether form a united Rule of Faith. Catholic tradition 
is a divine source of knowledge in all things relating to 
faith. The Scriptures are only the document of ulti- 
mate appeal ; Catholic tradition is the authoritative 
teacher." 

" Tradition is infallible," says another divine ;f " the 
unwritten word of God, of necessity, demands of us the 
same respect which His written word does, and pre- 
cisely for the same reason, because it is His word." 
" We demand that the whole of the Catholic traditions 
should be taught," says a third. J 

" Such, gentlemen, is one of the most pestiferous er- 
rors which can be disseminated in the Church. 

Whence have Rome and Oxford derived it? Cer- 
tainly the respect which we entertain for the incontest- 
able learning of these divines shall not prevent our say- 
ing that this error can come from no other source than 
the natural aversion of the heart of fallen man for every 
thing that the Scriptures teach. It can be nothing else 
than a depraved will which leads man to put the sacred 
Scriptures aside. Men first abandon the fountain of 
living waters, and then hew for themselves, here and 
there, cisterns which will hold no water. This is a 
truth which the history of every Church teaches in its 
successive falls and errors, as well as that of every soul 
in particular. The theologians of Oxford only follow 
in the way of all flesh. 

Behold, then, gentlemen, two established authorities 
by the side of each other : the Bible, and tradition. We 
do not hesitate as to what we have to do. 

* Newman, Lecture on Romanism. f Keble's Sermons. 

X Palmer's Aids to Reflection. 



286 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

"To the Law and to the Testimony P we cry with 
the prophet ; " if they speak not according to His word, 
it is because there is no light in them : and behold troub- 
le and darkness, dimness of anguish ; and they shall be 
driven to darkness."* 

We reject tradition, as it is a species of rationalism 
which introduces, for a rule in Christian doctrine, not 
the human reason of the present time, but the human 
reason of times past. We declare, with the churches 
of the Reformation in their symbolical writings (confes- 
sions of faith), that " the Sacred Scriptures are the only 
judge, the only rule of faith ; that it is to them, as to a 
touchstone, that all dogmas ought to be brought ; that 
it is by them that the question should be decided, wheth- 
er they are pious or impious, true or false !"f 

Without doubt there was originally an oral tradition 
which was pure ; it was the instructions given by the 
apostles themselves, before the sacred writings of the 
New Testament existed. However, even then the 
apostle and the evangelist, Peter and Barnabas.J could 
not walk uprightly, and consequently stumbled in their 
words. The divinely inspired Scriptures alone are in- 
fallible : the word of the Lord endureth forever. 

But, however pure oral instruction may have been at 
the time that the apostles quitted the earth, that tradition 
was necessarily exposed in this world of sin to be grad- 
ually defaced, polluted, and corrupted. It is for this 
cause that the Evangelical Church honors and adores, 
with gratitude and humility, the gracious good pleasure 
of the Savior, in virtue of which that pure, primitive 
type, that first, apostolic tradition, in all its purity, has 
been rendered permanent by being written, by the Spirit 
of God Himself, in our sacred books, for all coming 
time. And now it finds in those writings, as we have 

* Isa., viii., 20, 22. t Formula of Agreement. t Gal, ii., 13. 



GENEVA AND OXFORD, 287 

just heard, the divine touchstone which it employs for 
the purpose of trying all the traditions of men. 

Nor does it establish concurrently, as do the doctors 
of Oxford and the Council of Trent, the tradition which 
is written and the tradition which is oral; but it decid- 
edly renders the latter subordinate to the former, be- 
cause one can not be sure that this oral tradition is only 
and truly the Apostolical Tradition, such as it was in its 
primitive purity. 

The knowledge of true Christianity, says the Protest- 
ant Church, flows only from one source, namely, from 
the Holy Scriptures, or, if you will, from the apostolic 
tradition, such as we find it contained in the writings 
of the New Testament. 

The Apostles of Jesus Christ — Peter, Paul, John, 
Matthew, James — perform their functions in the Church 
to-day ; no one has the need nor the power to take their 
place. They perform their functions at Jerusalem, at 
Geneva, at Corinth, at Berlin, at Paris ; they bear testi- 
mony in Oxford and in Rome itself. They preach, even 
to the ends of the world, the remission of sins and con- 
version of the soul in the name of the Savior ; they an- 
nounce the resurrection of the Crucified to every crea- 
ture ; they loose and they retain sins ; they lay the 
foundation of the house of God, and they build it ; they 
teach the missionaries and the ministers of the Gospel ; 
they regulate the order of the Church, and preside in 
synods which would be Christian. They do all this by 
the written word which they have left us ; or, rather, 
Christ, Christ Himself, does it by that word, since it is 
the word of Christ, rather than the word of Paul, of Pe- 
ter, or of James. " Go ye, therefore, and teach all na- 
tions : lo ! I am with you always, even unto the end of 
the world."* 

* Matt., xxviii., 19, 20. 



288 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

Without doubt, as to the number of their words, the 
apostles spoke more than they wrote ; but as to the 
substance, they said nothing more than what they have 
left us in their divine books. And if they had, in sub- 
stance, taught otherwise, or more explicitly than they did 
by their writings, no one could at this day be able to re- 
port to us, with assurance, even one syllable of these 
instructions. If God did not choose to preserve them 
in His Bible, no one could come to His aid, and do what 
God Himself would not wish to do, and what He would 
not have done. If, in the writings, of more or less doubt- 
ful authenticity, of the companions of the apostles, or of 
those fathers who are called apostolical, one should find 
any doctrine of the apostles, it would be necessary, first 
of all, to put it to the test, in comparing it with the cer- 
tain instructions of the apostles, that is, with the canon 
of the Scriptures. 

So much for the tradition of the apostles. Let us 
pass on from the times when they lived to those which 
succeeded. Let us come to the tradition of the divines 
of the first centuries. That tradition is, without doubt, 
of great value to us ; but by the very fact of its being 
Presbyterian, Episcopal, or Synodical, it is no longer 
apostolical. And let us suppose (what is not true) that 
it does not contradict itself; and let us suppose that one 
father does not overthrow what another father has es- 
tablished (as is often the case, and Abelard has proved 
it in his famous work entitled the Sic et Non, whose re- 
cent publication we owe to the care of a French philoso- 
pher*) ; let us suppose, for a moment, that one might re- 
duce this tradition of the Fathers of the Church to a 
harmony similar to that which the apostolical tradition 

* Ouvrages inedites d' Abelard, published by M. Victor Cousin, Paris, 
1836. The introduction to this work, upon the History of Scholastic Phi- 
losophy in France, is a master-piece- 



GENEVA AND OXFORD. 289 

presents, the canon which might be obtained thus could 
in no manner be placed on an equality with the canon 
of the apostles.* 

Without doubt, we acknowledge that the declarations 
of Christian divines merit our attention, if it be the Holy 
Spirit which speaks in them, that Spirit which is ever 
living and ever acting in the Church. But we will not, 
we absolutely will not allow ourselves to be bound by 
that which, in this tradition and in these divines, is only 
the work of man. And how shall we distinguish that 
which is of God from that which is of men, if not by the 
Holy Scriptures? " It remains," says St. Augustine, 
" that I judge myself according to this only Master, from 
whose judgment I desire not to escape."f The decla- 
rations of the doctors of the Church are only the testi- 
monies of the faith which these eminent men had in the 
doctrines of the Scriptures. They show how these di- 
vines received these doctrines ; they may, without doubt, 
be instructive and edifying for us; but there is no author- 
ity in them which binds us. All the divines, Greek, 
Latin, French, Swiss, German, English, American, pla- 
ced in the presence of the word of God, are only disci- 
ples who are receiving instruction. Men of primitive 
days and men of modern times, we are all alike schol- 
ars in that divine school ; and in the chair of instruction 
around which we are humbly assembled, nothing appears, 
nothing exalts itself, but the infallible word of God. I 
perceive in that vast auditory Calvin, Luther, Cranmer, 
Augustine, Chrysostom, Athanasius, Cyprian, by the side 
of our contemporaries. We are not " disciples of Cyp- 
rian and Ignatius," as the doctors of Oxford J call them- 
selves, but of Jesus Christ. " We do not despise the 
writings of the fathers," we say, with Calvin, " but in 

* Nitzsch, Protestantische Theses. f Retract, in Prol. 

X Newman on Romanism. 

B 2 



290 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

making use of them we remember always that 'all things 
are ours;'* that they ought to serve, not govern us, and 
that ' we, we are Christ's/! whom in all things, and 
without exception, it behooves us to obey. "J 

This the divines of the first centuries are themselves 
the first to say. They claim for themselves no author- 
ity, and only wish that the word which has taught them 
may teach us also. " Now that I am old," says Augus- 
tine, in his Retractions, " I do not expect not to be mis- 
taken in word, or to be perfect in word ; how much less 
when, being young, I commenced writing ?"§ " Be- 
ware," says he again, "of submitting to my writings, 
as if they were canonical Scriptures."|| " Do not 
esteem as canonical Scriptures the works of Catholic 
and justly honored men," says he elsewhere. * It is 
allowable for us, without impeaching the honor which 
is due to them, to reject those things in their writings, 
should we find such in them, which are contrary to the 
Truth. I regard the writings of others as I would have 
others regard mine."^[ "All that has been said since 
the times of the apostles ought to be disregarded," says 
Jerome, " and can possess no authority. However holy, 
however learned a man may be, who comes after the 
apostles, let him have no authority."** 

" Neither antiquity nor custom," says the Confession 
of the Reformed Church of France, " ought to be array- 
ed in opposition to the Holy Scriptures ; on the contra- 
ry, all things ought to be examined, regulated, and re- 
formed according to them." 

And the Confession of the English Church even says, 
the doctors of Oxford to the contrary notwithstanding : 
" The Holy Scriptures contain all that is necessary to 

* 1 Cor., iii., 22. f 1 Cor., iii., 23. j Calv. Inst. Relig. Christ. 

§ Retractions. H In Prol. de Trinitate. % Ad Fortunatianum. 

*"* In Psalm lsxxvi. 



GENEVA AND OXFORD. 291 

salvation, so that all that is not found in them, all that 
can not be proved by them, can not be required of any 
one as an article of faith or as necessary to salvation." 
Thus the Evangelical divines of our times give the 
hand to the reformers, the reformers to the fathers, the 
fathers to the apostles ; and thus, forming, as it were, a 
golden chain, the whole Church, of all ages and of all 
people, sings as with one voice to the God of Truth, 
that hymn of one of our greatest poets :* 

" Speak Thou unto my heart ; and let no sage's word, 
No teacher Thee beside, explain to me Thy law ; 
Let every soul before Thy holy presence, Lord ! 
Bow down in silent awe, 
And let Thy voice be heard !" 

What, then, is tradition? It is the testimony of his- 
tory. 

There is a historical testimony for the facts of Christ- 
ian history, as well as for those of any other history. 
We admit that testimony ; only we would discuss it 
and examine it, as we would all other testimony. The 
heresy of Rome and of Oxford — and it is that which 
distinguishes them from us — consists in the fact that 
they attribute the same infallibility to this testimony as 
to Scripture itself. 

Although we receive the testimony of History as far 
as it is true, as, for example, when it relates to the col- 
lection of the writings of the apostles : it by no means 
results from this that we should receive this testimony 
on subjects which are false, as, for instance, on the ado- 
ration of Mary, or the celibacy of the priests. 

The Bible is the faith, holy, authoritative, and truly 

* Corneille. 
Parle seul a mon coeur, et qu'aucune prudence, 
Qu'aucun autre docteur ne m'explique tes lois; 
Que toute creature en ta sainte presence 

S'impose le silence, 

Et laisse agir ta voix ! 



292 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

ancient, of the child of God ; human tradition springs 
from the love of novelties, and is the faith of ignorance, 
of superstition, and of a credulous puerility. 

How deplorable, yet instructive, to see the doctors of 
a Church, which is called to the glorious liberty of the 
children of God, and which reposes only on God and 
His word, place themselves under the bondage of hu- 
man ordinances ! And how loudly does that example 
cry to us, " Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ 
hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the 
yoke of bondage."* 

All those errors which we are combating come from 
a misunderstanding of truths. We, too, believe in the 
attributes of the Church of which they speak so much ; 
but we believe in them according to the meaning which 
God attaches to it, and our opponents believe in them 
according to that which men attach to it. 

Yes, there is one holy Catholic Church, but it is, as 
the apostle says, " The general assembly and Church of 
the first-born, whose names are written in heaven."f 
Unity as well as holiness appertains to the invisible 
Church. It behooves us, without doubt, to pray that the 
visible Church should advance daily in the possession 
of these heavenly attributes ; but neither rigorous unity 
nor universal holiness is a perfection essential to its ex- 
istence, or a sine qua non. To say that the visible 
Church must absolutely be composed of saints only, is 
the error of the Donatists and fanatics of all ages. So, 
also, to say that the visible Church must of necessity be 
externally one, is the corresponding error of Rome, of 
Oxford, and of formalists of all times. Let us guard 
against preferring the external hierarchy, which con- 
sists in certain human forms, to that internal hierarchy 
which is the kingdom of God itself. Let us not suffer 

* Gal., v., L t Heb., xii., 23. 



GENEVA AND OXFORD. 293 

the form, which passes away, to determine the essence 
of the Church ; but let us, on the contrary, make the es- 
sence of the Church, to wit, the Christian life — which 
emanates from the word and Spirit of God — change 
and renew the form. The form has killed the substance 
— here is the whole history of the Papacy and of false 
Catholicism. The substance vivifies the form — here is 
the whole history of Evangelical Christianity, and of 
the true Catholic Church of Jesus Christ. 

Yes, I admit it ; the Church is the judge of contro- 
versies — judex controversiarum. But what is the 
Church? It is not the clergy; it is not the councils; 
still less is it the pope. It is the Christian people ; it is 
the faithful. " Prove all things ; hold fast that which is 
good,"* is said to the children of God, and not to some 
assembly, or to a certain bishop ; and it is they who 
are constituted, on the part of God. judges of controver- 
sies. If animals have the instinct which leads them not 
to eat that which is injurious to them, we can not do 
less than allow to the Christian this instinct, or, rather, 
this intelligence, which emanates from the virtue of the 
Holy Spirit. Every Christian (the word of God de- 
clares it) is called upon to reject " every spirit that con- 
fesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh."f And 
this is what is essentially meant when it is said that the 
Church is the judge of controversies ! 

Yes, I believe and confess that there is an authority 
in the Church, and that without that authority the 
Church can not stand. But where is it to be found ? 
Is it with him, whoever he may be, who has the exter- 
nal consecration, whether he possess theological gifts 
or not, whether he has received grace and justification 
or not? Rome herself does not yet pretend that orders 
save and sanctify. Must, then, the children of God go ? 

* 1 Thess., v., 21. f 1 John, iv., 1-5. 

Bb 2 



294 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

in many cases, to ask a decision in things relating to 
faith of the children of this world ? What ! a bishop, 
from the moment he is seated in his chair, although he 
may be, perhaps, destitute of science, destitute of the 
Spirit .of God, and although he may, perhaps, have the 
world and hell in his heart, as had Borgia and so many 
other bishops, shall he have authority in the assembly 
of the saints, and do his lips possess always the wisdom 
and the truth necessary for the Church ? No, gentle- 
men, the idea of a knowledge of God, true, but at the 
same time destitute of holiness, is a gross supernatural- 
ism. " Sanctify them through the truth." says Jesus.* 
There is an authority in the Church, but that authority 
is wholly in the word of God. It is not a man, nor a 
minister, nor a bishop, descended from Gregory, from 
Chrysostom, from Augustine, or from Irenaeus, who has 
authority over the soul. It is not with a power so con- 
temptible as that which comes from those men, that 
we, the ministers of God, go forth into the world. It is 
elsewhere than in that episcopal succession, that w 7 e 
seek that which gives authority to our ministry, and 
validity to our sacraments. 

Rejecting these deplorable innovations, we appeal 
from them to the ancient, sovereign, and divine author- 
ity of the word of the Lord. The question which we 
ask of the man who would inform himself concerning 
eternal things, is that which w^e receive from Jesus Him- 
self: "What is written in the Law, and how readest 
thou ?"f What we say to rebellious spirits is w 7 hat 
Abraham said from heaven to the rich man : " You 
have Moses and the prophets, hear them."J 

That which we ask of all, is to imitate the Bereans, 
who " searched the Scriptures daily, whether these 
things were so."§ 

* John, xvii., 17. f Luke, x., 26. X Luke, xvi., 29. § Acts, xvii., 11. 



GENEVA AND OXFORD. 295 

" We ought to obey God rather than men,"* even the 
most excellent of men. 

Behold the true authority, the true hierarchy, the true 
polity. The churches which are made by men possess 
human authority — this is natural ; but the Church of 
God possesses the authority of God, and she will not 
receive it from others. 

II. 

Such is the formal principle of Christianity ; let us 
come now to its material principle, that is to say, to the 
body, the very substance of religion. We have an- 
nounced it in these terms : 

THE GRACE OF CHRIST ONLY. 

" Ye are saved by grace, through faith," says the 
Scripture, " and that not of yourselves : it is the gift of 
God; not of works, lest any man should boast."f 

Evangelical Christianity not only seeks complete sal- 
vation in Christ, but seeks it in Christ only, thus exclud- 
ing, as a cause of salvation, all works of his own, all 
merit, all co-operation of man or of the Church. There 
is nothing, absolutely nothing upon which we can build 
the hope of our salvation, but the free and unmerited 
grace of God, which is given to us in Christ, and com- 
municated by faith. 

Now, this second great foundation of Evangelical 
Christianity is likewise overthrown by the modern Ec- 
clesiastical Catholicism. 

The famous 9th Tract, which I hold in my hand at 
this moment, seeks to explain in a papistical sense the 
Confession of Faith of the Church of England. 

The 11th Article of this Confession says: "That we 
are justified by Faith onty, is a most wholesome doc- 
trine." 

* Acts, v., 29. f Eph., ii, 8. 



296 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

This is the commentary of the new school of Oxford i 
"In adhering to the doctrine that faith alone justifies, 
we do not at all exclude the doctrine that works also 
justify. If it were said that works justify in the same 
sense in which it is said that faith alone justifies, there 
would be a contradiction in terms. But faith alone, in 
one sense, justifies us, and in another, good works justi- 
fy us : this is all that is here maintained ! Christ 

alone, in one sense, justifies ; faith also justifies in its 
proper sense ; and so works, whether moral or cere- 
monial, may justify us in their respective sense." 

" There are," says the British Critic> " some Catholic 
truths which are imprinted on the surface of the Scrip- 
ture rather than developed in its profound meaning ; 
such is the doctrine of justification by works." " The 
preaching of justification by Faith," says another divine 
of this school, " ought to be addressed to Pagans by 
the propagators of Christian knowledge ; its promoters 
ought to preach to baptized persons justification by 
works." Works, yes ;. but justification by them, never I 

Justification is not, according to these divines, that 
judicial act by which God, for the sake of the expiatory 
death of Christ, declares that He treats us as righteous ^ 
it is confounded by them, as well as by Rome, with the 
work of the Holy Spirit. 

" Justification," says, again, the chief of these doctors^ 
"is a progressive work; it must be the work of the 
Holy Spirit, and not of Christ. The distinction between 
deliverance from the guilt of sin and deliverance from 
sin itself is not scriptural."* 

The British Critic calls the system of justification 
by grace through faith "radically and fundamentally 
monstrous, immoral, heretical, and anti-Christian." '^The 
custom which has prevailed," say, again, these divines^ 

* Newman on Justification, 



GENEVA AND OXFORD. 297 

" of advancing, on all occasions, the doctrine of Justifi- 
cation explicitly and mainly, is evidently and entirely 
opposed to the teaching of the Holy Scriptures."* And 
they condemn those who make " Justification to consist 
in the act by which the soul rests upon the merits of 
Christ only."f 

I know that the doctors of Oxford pretend to have 
found here a middle term between the Evangelical doc- 
trine and the Romish doctrine. "It is not," say they, 
" Sanctification which justifies us, but the presence of 
God in us, from which this Sanctification flows. Our 
Justification is the possession of this presence." But 
the doctrine of Oxford is at bottom the same with that 
of Rome. The Bible speaks to us of two great works 
of Christ : Christ for us, and Christ in us. Which of 
these two works is that which justifies us? The Church 
of Christ answers, The former. Rome and Oxford an- 
swer, The latter. When this is said all is said. 

And these doctors do not conceal it. They inform 
us that it is the system against which they stand up. 
They declare to us that it is against the idea that, when 
the sinner " has by faith laid hold of the saving merits 
of Christ, his sins are blotted out, covered, and can not 
reappear ; his guilt has been abolished, so that he has 
only to render thanks to Christ, who has delivered him 
from his transgressions." " My lord," says Dr. Pusey 
to the Bishop of Oxford, " it is against this system that 
I have spoken." Stop ! Do not tear to pieces this 
good news, which alone has been, and will be in all 
ages, the consolation of the sinner ! 

Gentlemen, if the effect of the first principle of this 
new school would be to deprive the Church of all light, 
that of this second principle would be to deprive it of 
all salvation. " If righteousness come by the law, then 

* Tract 80. | Newman on Justification. 



298 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

Christ is dead in vain. O foolish Galatians, who hath 
bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth : re- 
ceived ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the 
hearing of faith?"* 

Men the most eminent for piety have felt that it is 
the very source of the Christian life, the foundation of 
the Church, which is here attacked : " There is reason," 
says the excellent Bishop of Winchester, who, as well as 
several other bishops^ and particularly those of Chester 
and Calcutta, has denounced these errors, in a charge 
addressed to his clergy, " there is reason to fear that 
the distinctive principles of our Church would be en- 
dangered, if men should envelop in a cloud the great 
doctrine which sets forth the way in which we are ac- 
counted righteous before God ; if men doubt that the 
Protestant doctrine of justification by faith is fundament- 
al ; if, instead of the sacrifice of Christ, the pure and 
only cause for which we are graciously received, men 
establish a certain inherent disposition of sanctification, 
and thus confound the work of the Spirit within with 
the work of Christ without." 

The school of Oxford pretends, with Rome and the 
Council of Trent, " That justification is the indwelling in 
us of God the Father and of the incarnate Word, by 
the Holy Spirit, and that the two acts distinguished from 
each other by the Bible and our theologians form only 
one."t What then ? 

1. God remits to the sinner the penalty of sin ; He ab- 
solves him ; He pardons him. 2. He delivers him from 
sin itself; He renews him ; He sanctifies him. 

Are not these two different things ? 

Would not the pardon of sin on the part of God be 
just nothing at all ? Would it not be simply an image 
of sanctification? Or should we say that the pardon 

* Gal., ii., 21 ; iii., 2, 3. f Letter of Dr. Pusey to the Bishop of Oxford. 



GENEVA AND OXFORD. 299 

which is granted to faith, and which produces in the 
heart the sentiment of reconciliation, of adoption, and 
of peace, is something too externa] to be taken into ac- 
count? 

" The Lutheran system," says the British Critic, 
" is immoral, because it distinguishes between these two 
works." Without doubt, it does distinguish between 
them, but it does not separate them. " See wherefore 
we are justified," says Melanchthon, in the Apology for 
the Confession of Augsburg; "it is in order that, being 
righteous, we should do good, and begin to obey the law 
of God ; see here why it is that we are regenerated and 
receive the Holy Spirit : it is that the new. life may have 
new works and new dispositions." How many times 
has the Reformation declared that justifying faith is not 
an historical, dead, vain knowledge, but a living action, 
an act of willing and receiving, a work of the Holy 
Spirit, the true worship of God, obedience toward God 
in the most important of all moments ! Yes, it is a liv- 
ing, efficacious faith which justifies ; and these words, 
efficacious faith, which are found in all our Confessions 
of Faith, are there for the purpose of declaring that 
faith alone serves as a cause in the work of justification, 
that it alone justifies, but that precisely because of this 
it does not rest alone, that is to say, without its appro- 
priate operations and its fruits. 

Such is the grand difference between us and the Ox- 
ford School. We believe in sanctification through jus- 
tification, and the Oxford School believes in justification 
through sanctification. With us, justification is the 
cause and sanctification is the effect. With these doc- 
tors, on the contrary, sanctification is the cause, and justi- 
fication the effect. And these are not things indifferent, 
and vain distinctions ; they are the sic and the non, the 
yes and the no. While our creed establishes in all their 



300 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

rights these two works, the creed of Oxford compromis- 
es and annihilates them both. Justification exists no 
more, if it depend on man's sanctification, and not od 
the grace of God ; for " The heavens," says the Scrip- 
ture, " are not clean in His sight,"* " and His eyes are 
too pure to behold iniquity ;"f but, on the other hand, 
sanctification itself can not be accomplished ; for how 
could you expect the effect to be produced when you 
begin by taking away the cause ? " Herein is love," 
says St. John, " not that we loved God, but that He 
loved us; we love Him because He first loved us."J 
If I might use a vulgar expression, I should say that Ox- 
ford puts the cart before the horse, in placing sanctifica- 
tion before justification. In this way neither the cart 
nor the horse will advance. In order that the work 
should go on, it is necessary that that which draws should 
be placed before that which is drawn. There is not a 
system more contrary to true sanctification than that ; 
and, to employ the language of the British Critic, there 
is not, consequently, a system more monstrous and im- 
moral. What ! shall your justification depend, not upon 
the work which Christ accomplished on the cross, but 
upon that which is accomplished in your hearts ! Is it 
not to Christ, to His grace, that you ought to look in 
order to be justified, but to yourselves, to the righteous- 
ness which is in you, to your spiritual gifts ! . . . 

From this result two great evils. 

Either you will deceive yourselves, in believing that 
there is a work in you sufficiently good to justify you 
before God ; and then you will be inflated with pride, 
that pride which the Scriptures say "goeth before a 
fall :" or you will not deceive yourselves ; you will see, 
as the Savior says, that you are poor, and wretched, 
and blind, and naked ; and then you will fall into de- 

* Job, xv., 15. f Hab., L, 13. % 1 John, iv., 10, 19. 



GENEVA AND OXFORD. 301 

spair. The heights of pride and the depths of despair ; 
such are the alternatives which the doctrine of Oxford 
and of Rome bequeaths to us. 

The Christian doctrine, on the contrary, places man 
in perfect humility, for it is Another who justifies him ; 
and yet it gives him abundant peace, for his justifica- 
tion — a fruit of the " righteousness of God"* — is com- 
plete, assured, eternal. 

III. 

Finally, we define the personal or moral principle of 
Christianity. We have announced it in these words : 

THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT ONLY. 

Christianity is an individual work ; the grace of God 
converts soul by soul. Each soul is a world, in which 
a creation peculiar to itself must be accomplished. The 
Church is but the assembly of all the souls in whom this 
work is wrought, and who are now united because they 
have but " one Spirit, one Lord, one Father." 

And what is the nature of this work ? It is essentially 
moral. Christianity operates upon the will of man and 
changes it. Conversion comes from the action of the 
Spirit of God, and not from the magic action of certain 
ceremonies, which, rendering faith on the part of man 
vain and useless, would regenerate him by their own 
inherent virtue. " In Christ Jesus neither circumcision 
availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but [to be] a new 
creature ;"f " If through the Spirit ye do mortify the 
deeds of the body, ye shall live."J 

Now the Oxford divines, although there is a great dif- 
ference among them on this point, as well as on some oth- 
ers (some going by no means as far as others), put immense 
obstacles in the way of this individual regeneration. 

* 2 Cor., v., 21. f Gal, vi., 15. t Rom., viii., 13. 

C c 



302 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

Nothing inspires them with greater repugnance than 
Christian individualism. They proceed by synthesis, 
not by analysis. They do not set out with the principle 
laid down by the Savior : ■' Except a man be born again, 
he can not see the kingdom of God ;" but they set out 
with this opposite principle : " All those who have par- 
ticipated in the ordinances of the Church are born 
again." And while the Savior, in all His discourses, ex- 
cites the efforts of each individual, saying," Seek, ask, 
knock, strive to enter in at the strait gate ; it is only the 
violent who take it by force;" the Oxford divines say, 
on the contrary, " The idea of obtaining religious truth 
ourselves, and by our private inquiry, whether by read- 
ing, or by thinking, or by studying the Scriptures or 
other books,. . . is nowhere authorized in the Scriptures. 
The great question which ought to be placed before 
every mind is this : ' What voice should be heard like 
that of the holy Catholic and Apostolic Church?'"* 

And how shall this individual regeneration by the 
Holy Spirit be accomplished, since the first task of Pu- 
seyism is to say to all, that it is already accomplished ; 
that all who have been baptized have thereby been ren- 
dered partakers of the Divine nature; and that to preach 
conversion again to them is contrary to the truth ? " It 
is baptism, and not faith," says one of these divines, "that 
is the primary instrument of justification ;"f and we 
know that with them justification and conversion are 
one and the same work. To prevent the wretched from 
escaping from the miserable state in which they are, 
would not the best means be, to persuade a poor man 
that he possesses a large fortune, or an ignorant man 
that he has great science, or a sick man that he is in 
perfect health ? The Evil One could not invent a strat- 
agem more fit to prevent conversion than this idea, that 

* British Critic. t Newman on Justification. 



GENEVA AND OXFORD. 303 

all men who have been baptized by water are regener- 
ated. 

Still more, these doctors extend to the Holy Supper 
this same magic virtue. " It is now almost universally 
believed," say they, in speaking of their Church, " that 
God communicates grace only through faith, prayer, 
spiritual contemplation, communion with God ; while it 
is the Church and her sacraments which are the ordain- 
ed, direct, visible means for conveying to the soul that 
which is invisible and supernatural. It is said, for ex- 
ample, that to administer the Supper to infants, to dying 
persons apparently deprived of their senses, however 
pious they may have been, is a superstition ; and yet 
these practices are sanctioned by antiquity. The es- 
sence of the sectarian doctrine is to consider faith, and 
not the sacraments, as the means of justification and 
other evangelical gifts."* 

What, then ? shall a child who does not possess reason, 
and does not even know how to speak, shall a sick man 
whom the approach of death has deprived of perception 
and intelligence, receive grace purely by the external 
application of the sacraments ? Have the will, the af- 
fections of the heart, no need to be touched in order that 
man may be sanctified ? What a degradation of man 
and of the religion of Jesus Christ ! Is there a great 
difference between such ceremonies and the mummer- 
ies and charms of the debased Hindoos, or of the Afri- 
can savages ! 

If the first error of Oxford deprives the Church of 
light, if the second deprives her of salvation, the third 
deprives her of all real sanctification. Without doubt, 
we believe that the sacraments are means of grace ; 
but they are only so when faith accompanies their use. 
To put faith and the sacraments in opposition, as the 

* Tracts for the Times. Advertisement in vol. ii. 



304 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

Oxford doctors do, is to annihilate the efficacy of the 
sacraments themselves. 

The Church will rise up against such fatal errors. 
There is a work of renovation which must be wrought 
in man, a personal or individual work ; and it is God 
who performs it. " A new heart," saith the Lord, " will 
I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you."* 

By what right would they thus put the Church in the 
place of God, and establish her clergy as the dispensers 
of divine life ? 

Then it would be of little consequence that a man 
had led a dissipated life, and that the heart remained 
attached to sin and the world; would not a participa- 
tion in the sacraments of religion suffice to put him in 
possession of grace ? We are assured that already sad 
consequences are manifested in the life of many of the 
adherents of Oxford. 

The system of Puseyism tends to lull the conscience 
to sleep by the participation of external rites : the Evan- 
gelical system tends to awaken it unceasingly. The 
work of the Spirit, which is one of the grand principles 
of Evangelical Christianity, does not consist only in re- 
generation ; it consists also in a sanctification, funda- 
mental and universal. If, instead of permitting our- 
selves to be enfeebled by trusting to human ordinances, 
we have truly the Spirit of Christ within us, we shall 
not suffer the least contradiction to exist between the 
divine law on the one hand, and our dispositions and ac- 
tions on the other. We shall not content ourselves with 
abstaining from the grosser manifestations of sin, but 
we shall desire that the very germ of evil be eradicated 
from our hearts. We shall love the Truth, and we shall 
reject with horror that sad hypocrisy which sometimes 
defiles the sanctuary. We shall not have in the com- 

* Ezek., xxxvi., 26. 



GENEVA AND OXFORD. 805 

munication of our religious convictions that reserve 
which Puseyism prescribes ; " That which shall have 
been told to us in the ear, we shall proclaim on the house- 
tops."* We shall not remain in a Church whose most 
sacred truths we trample under our feet, eating the 
bread which it gives us, and lifting up our arm to strike 
it. From the moment that we shall have discovered 
that a doctrine is opposed to the word of God, neither 
dangers nor sacrifices shall prevent us from casting it 
far from us. The work of the Spirit will carry light 
into the most secret recesses of our hearts. " The 
King's daughter is all glorious within."f The King 
whom we follow has said to us : "I am the light of the 
world : he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, 
but shall have the light of life."J 



I repeat again in closing, gentlemen : the three great 
principles of Christianity are these : 

The Word of God only. 
The Grace of God only. 
The Work of the Spirit only. 

I come now to ask you henceforth to apply to your- 
selves more and more these principles, and let them 
reign supremely over your hearts and lives. 

And why, gentlemen ? Because every thing that 
places our souls in immediate communication with God 
is salutary, and every thing that interposes between 
God and our souls is injurious and ruinous. If a thick 
cloud should pass between you and the sun, you would 
no longer feel its genial warmth, and might perhaps be 
seized with a chill. So if you place between yourselves 
and the word of God the tradition and authority of the 
Church, you will no longer have to do with the word 

* Matt,, x„ 27, f Psalm xlv., 13. \ John, viii,, 12, 

C u 2 



306 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

of God, that is to say, with a divine, and, consequently, 
a powerful and perfect instrument, but with the word 
of man ; that is to say, with a human, and, consequently, 
a weak and defective instrument ; it will have lost that 
power which translates from darkness into light. 

Or, if you place between the grace of God and your- 
selves the ordinances of the Church, the episcopal 
priesthood, the dispositions of the heart, works, grace 
will then be no more grace, as St. Paul says. The in- 
strument of God will have been broken, and we shall no 
longer be able to say, that " Charity proceeds from faith 
unfeigned,"* that " faith worketh by love,"f " that our 
souls are purified in obeying the truth,"J " that Christ 
dwells in our hearts by faith."§ 

Man always seeks to return, in some way or other, 
to a human salvation ; this is the source of the innova- 
tions of Rome and of Oxford. The substitution of the 
Church for Jesus Christ is that which essentially char- 
acterizes these opinions. It is no longer Christ who en- 
lightens, Christ who saves, Christ who forgives, Christ 
who commands, Christ who judges ; it is the Church, 
and always the Church, that is to say, an assembly of 
sinful men, as weak and prone to err as ourselves. 
" They have taken away the Lord, and we know not 
where they have laid Him."|| 

The errors which we have indicated are, therefore, 
practical errors, destructive of true piety in the soul, a 
deprivation of God's influence, and an exaltation of the 
flesh, although in a form that " has the show of w T isdom 
in will-worship and humility."1[ If they should ever 
obtain the ascendency in the Church, Christianity would 
cease to be a new, a holy, a spiritual, a heavenly life. 
It would become an external affair of ordinances, rites, 

* 1 Tim., i. t Gal., v. % 1 Cor., i. 

$ Eph., iii. II John., xx,, 2. % Col., ii. t 23. 



GENEVA AND OXFORD. 307 

and ceremonies. This has been clearly seen by the 
servant of God whom we have already quoted : " Fi- 
nally," says Sumner, Bishop of Winchester, " I can not 
but fear the consequences that a system of teaching, 
which confines itself to the external and ritual parts of 
divine worship, while it loses sight of their internal sig- 
nification and the spiritual life, may have upon the char- 
acter, the efficacy, and the truth of our Church ; a sys- 
tem which robs the Church of its brightest glory, and, 
forgetting the continual presence of the Lord, seems to 
depose Him from His just pre-eminence ; a system which 
tends to put the observance of days, months, times, and 
seasons in the place of a true and spiritual worship ; 
which substitutes a spirit of hesitation, fear, and doubt 
for the cordial obedience of filial love ; a slavish spirit 
for the liberty of the Gospel ; and which, indeed, calls 
upon us to work out our sanctification with fear and 
trembling, but without any foretaste of the rest that 
remaineth for the people of God, without giving us joy 
in believing."* 

The universal Church of Christ rejoices to hear such 
words. She beholds, with gratitude toward her divine 
Head, the firmness with which some bishops, ministers, 
and laymen of England meet this growing evil. But is 
this enough ? Is it enough to retain, on the edge of a 
precipice, a Church and a people, hitherto so dear to 
the friends of the Gospel? 

Oxford conducts to Rome ; Mr. Sibthorp and others 
have proved it. The march of Puseyism, regularly in- 
clining, from tract to tract, toward the pure system of the 
Papacy, demonstrates clearly enough the end to which 
it tends. And even if it should not effect a total con- 
version to Popery, what signifies it, since it is nothing 

* Charge delivered by Ch. R. Sumner, D.D., Lord Bishop of Winchester, 
184L 



30S DISCOURSES AXD ESSAYS. 

else than the Popish system (in its essential features) 
transferred to England ? It is not necessary that the 
Thames should go to Rome to bear the tribute of its 
waters : the Tiber flows in Oxford. 

England owes every thing to the Reformation. What 
was she before the renovation of the Church ? Blindly 
submissive to the Tudors. her forms of government, both 
political and ecclesiastical, were superannuated, without 
life and spirit ; so that in England, as in almost all Eu- 
rope, we might say, with a Christian statesman, that 
"Despotism seemed the only preservative against disso- 
lution. "* The Reformation developed, in an admirable 
manner, that Christian spirit, that love of liberty, that fear 
of God, that loyal affection for the sovereign, that patri- 
otism, those generous sacrifices, that genius, that strength, 
that activity, which constitute the prosperity and glory 
of England. In the age of the Reformation, Catholic 
Spain, gorged with the blood of the children of God, fell, 
overthrown bv the Almighty Arm, and reformed Eng- 
land ascended in her stead the throne of the seas, which 
has been justly termed the throne of the world. The 
winds which engulfed the Armada called up this new 
power from the depths. 

The country of Philip II., wounded to the heart be- 
cause she had attacked the people of God, dropped from 
her hand the scepter of the ocean ; and the country of 
Elizabeth, fortified bv the word of God. found it floating 
on the seas, seized it. and wielded it to bring into sub- 
jection to the King of heaven the nations of the earth. 
It is the Gospel that has given to England our antip- 
odes.! It is the God of the Gospel who has bestowed 
upon her all that she possesses. If in those distinguish- 

* Archives of the House of Orange-Nassau, published at the Hague, bj 
Mr. Groen Van Prinsterer, Counselor of State, 
f New Zealand, 



GENEVA AND OXFORD. 809 

ed islands the Gospel were to fall under the united at 
tacks of Popery and Puseyism, we might write upon 
their hitherto triumphant banner, " Ichabod, the glory of 
the Lord is departed." 

God has given the dominion of the seas to nations 
who bear every where with them the Gospel of Jesus 
Christ. But if, instead of the good news of salvation, 
England carries to the heathen a mere human and 
priestly religion, God will deprive her of her power. 
The evil is already great. In India the Puseyite mission- 
aries are satisfied with teaching the natives rites and 
ceremonies, without troubling themselves about the con- 
version of the heart ; thus treading closely in the steps 
of the Roman Catholic Church. They endeavor to 
counteract the efforts of evangelical missionaries, and 
disturb the weak minds of the natives, by telling them 
that all those who have not received Episcopal ordina- 
tion are not ministers. 

If England prove unfaithful to the Gospel, God will 
humble her in those powerful islands where she has es- 
tablished her throne, and in those distant countries sub- 
jected to her sway. Do we not already hear a faint 
rumor which justifies these gloomy presentiments? The 
mother country sees her difficulties increase ; unheard- 
of disasters have spread fear and terror on the banks of 
the Indus. From the chariot of this people is heard a 
cracking sound, because impious hands have changed 
the pole-bolt. Should England forsake the faith of the 
Bible, the crown would fall from her head. Ah ! we 
also, Christians of the Continent and of the world, 
would mourn over her fall ! We love her for Christ's 
sake ; for His sake we pray for her. But if the apos- 
tasy now begun should be accomplished, we shall have 
nothing left for her but cries, groans, and tears. 



310 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

What are the bishops doing ? What is the Church 
doing? This is the general question. 

If the Church of England were well administered, she 
would only admit to her pulpits teachers who submit to 
the word of God, agreeably to the Thirty-nine Articles, 
and banish from them all those who violate her laws, 
and poison the minds of the youth, trouble souls, and 
seek to overthrow the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

A few Episcopal mandates will not accomplish this. 
We undoubtedly believe that no power can take from 
the Christian the right to " examine the Scriptures, and 
to try the spirits whether they are of God." But we do 
not believe in the supreme power of the clergy : we do 
not believe that the servants of a Church may announce 
to it doctrines which tend to overthrow it. Did it not 
please the apostles, the elders, and the whole Church to 
impose silence upon those of Antioch who wished to 
substitute, as they do now at Oxford, human ordinances 
for the grace of Christ ? # Since when does a well-con- 
stituted Church speak only through isolated voices ? 
Shall the Annual Convocations of the Church of Eng- 
land remain always a vain ceremony and an empty 
form ? If their nature can not be changed, shall not 
powerful remedies be applied to counteract great evils? 
Will not the Church be moved in England, as formerly 
at Jerusalem ? Shall not the " elders and the whole 
Church"f form a council which shall, as tradition tells 
us they did at Nice, place the word of God upon an ele- 
vated throne, in token of its supreme authority, and, 
condemning and cutting off all dangerous errors, render 
to Jesus Christ and His word that supreme authority 
which usurping hands are on the point of wresting from 
Him ? 

But if the Church still holds her peace, if she allows 

* Acts, xxv., 22. t Ibid. 



GENEVA AND OXFORD, 311 

her sacred foundations to be sapped in her universities, 
then (we say it with profound grief) a voice like that 
of the prophet will be heard, exclaiming, " Woe to the 
Church ! woe to the people ! woe to England !•" 

Gentlemen, there are two ways of destroying Christ- 
ianity : one is to deny it, the other to displace it. To 
put the Church above Christianity, the hierarchy above 
the word of God ; to ask a man, not whether he has 
received the Holy Ghost, but whether he has received 
baptism from the hands of those who are termed suc- 
cessors of the apostles and their delegates : all this may 
doubtless flatter the pride of the natural man, but is fun- 
damentally opposed to the Bible, and aims a fatal blow 
at the religion of Jesus Christ. If God had intended 
that Christianity should, like the Mosaic system, be 
chiefly an ecclesiastical, sacerdotal, and hierarchical 
system, He would have ordered and established it in 
the New Testament, as He did in the Old. But there 
is nothing like this in the New Testament. All the 
declarations of our Lord and of His apostles tend to 
prove that the new religion given to the world is " life 
and spirit," and not a new system of priesthood and or- 
dinances. " The kingdom of God," saith Jesus, " com- 
eth not with observation : neither shall they say, Lo 
here ! or, Lo there ! for behold, the kingdom of God is 
within you."* " The kingdom of God is not meat and 
drink ; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the 
Holy Ghost."t 

Let us, then, attribute a divine institution and a di- 
vine authority to the essence of the Church, but by no 
means to its form. God has undoubtedly established 
the ministry of the word and sacraments, that is to say 
general forms, which are adapted to the universal 
Church; but it is a narrow and dangerous bigotry 

* Luke, xvii., 20, 21. t Rom., xiv., 17. 



SI 2 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

which would attribute more importance to the particu- 
lar forms of each sect than to the spirit of Christianity. 
This evil has long prevailed in the Eastern Church 
[Greek], and has rendered it barren. It is the essence 
of the Church of Rome, and it is destroying it. It is 
endeavoring to insinuate itself into every Church ; it 
appears in England in the Established Church ; in Ger- 
many in the Lutheran, and even in the Reformed and 
Presbyterian Church. It is that mystery of iniquity 
which already began to work in the time of the apos- 
tles.* Let us reject and oppose this deadly principle 
wherever it is found. We are men before we are Swiss, 
French, English, or German ; let us also remember that 
we are Christians before we are Episcopalians, Luther- 
ans, Reformed, or Dissenters. These different forms 
of the Church are like the different costumes, different 
features, and different characters of nations ; that which 
constitutes the man is not found in these accessories. 
We must seek for it in the heart which beats under this 
exterior, in the conscience which is seated there, in the 
intelligence which shines there, in the will which acts 
there. If we assign more importance to the Church 
than to Christianity, to the form than to the life, we 
shall infallibly reap that which we have sown ; we shall 
soon have a Church composed of skeletons, clothed, it 
may be, in brilliant garments, and ranged, I admit, in 
a most imposing order to the eye, but as cold, stiff, and 
immovable as a pale legion of the dead. If Puseyism 
(and, unfortunately, some of the doctrines which it pro- 
mulgates are not, in England, confined to that school), 
if Puseyism should make progress in the Established 
Church, it will, in a few years, dry up all its springs 
of life. The feverish excitement which disease at first 
produces will soon give place to languor; the blood 

* 2 Thess., ii., 7. 



GENEVA AND OXFORD. 313 

will be congealed, the muscles stiffened, and fnat Church 
will be only a dead body, around which the eagles will 
gather together. 

All forms, whether papal, patriarchal, episcopal, con- 
sistorial, or presbyterian, possess only a human value 
and authority. Let us not esteem the bark above the 
sap, the body above the soul, the form above the life, 
the visible Church above the invisible, the priest above 
the Holy Spirit. Let us hate all sectarian, ecclesiasti- 
cal, national, or dissenting spirit ; but let us love Jesus 
Christ in all sects, whether ecclesiastical, national, or 
dissenting. The true catholicity which we have lost, 
and which we must seek to recover, is that of "holding 
the truth in love." A renovation of the Church is nec- 
essary ; I know it, I feel it, I pray for it from the bot- 
tom of my soul ; only let us seek for it in the right 
way. Forms, ecclesiastical constitutions, the organiza- 
tion of Churches, are important, very important. "But 
let us seek first the kingdom of God and His righteous- 
ness, and all these things will be added unto us."* 

Let us, then, gentlemen, be firm and decided in the 
truth ; and while we love the erring, let us boldly attack 
the error. Let us stand upon the rock of ages — the 
word of God ; and let the vain opinions and stale inno- 
vations which are constantly springing up and dying in 
the world, break powerless at our feet. " Two systems 
of doctrine," says Dr. Pusey, " are now, and probably 
for the last time, in conflict : the system of Geneva and 
the Catholic system." We accept this definition. One 
of the men who have most powerfully resisted these 
errors, the Rev. W. Goode, seems to think that by the 
Genevan system Dr. Pusey intends to designate the 
Unitarian, Pelagian, Latitudinarian system, which has 
laid waste the Church, not only in Geneva, but through- 

* Matt., vi., 33. 
D D 



SI 4 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

out Christendom. " According to Romish tactics,* 8, says 
Mr. Goode, " the adversaries of the Oxford school are 
classed together under the name that will render them 
most odious ; they belong, it is said, to the Genevan 
school"* 

Certainly, gentlemen, if the Unitarian school of Eng- 
land and Geneva were called upon to struggle with the 
semi-papal school of Oxford, we should much fear the 
issue. But these divines will meet with other opponents 
in England, Scotland, Ireland, on the Continent, and, if 
need be, even in our little and humble Geneva, 

Yes, we acknowledge that it is the system of Geneva 
which is now struggling with the Catholic system ; but 
it is the system of ancient Geneva \ it is the system of 
Calvin and Beza, the system of the Gospel and the Ref- 
ormation. The opprobrium they would cast upon us 
we receive as an honor. Three centuries ago, Geneva 
rose against Rome • let Geneva now rise against Oxford. 

" I should like," says one of the Oxford divines,f " to 
see the Patriarch of Constantinople and our Archbishop 
of Canterbury go barefoot to Rome, throw their arms 
round the pope, kiss him, and not let him go till they 

* The Case as It Is. 

t W. Palmer's Aids to Reflection, 1841. This work contains some curi- 
ous, and, without doubt, authentic conversations, which Mr. Palmer had at 
Geneva, in 1836, with different pastors and professors of the Academy and 
the Company. " July 26. The public professor of dogmatic theology told me, 
when I asked him what was the precise doctrine of the Company of Pastors 
at that time on the subject of the Trinity, ' Perhaps no two had exactly 
the same shade of opinion ; that the great majority would deny the doctrine 
in the scholastic sense.'— August 4. A pastor of the Company told me, • That 
of thirty-four members, he thinks there are only four who would admit the 
doctrine of the Trinity.' " The author was almost as much dissatisfied with 
the Evangelical as with the Unitarian ministers. He relates that one of 
the former said to him, on the 12th of August, " You are lost in the study 
of outward forms, mere worldly vanities ; you are a baby, a mere baby, he said 
in English." 

Translator's Note. — The reader will remember that the above quotation is 
not in the original words, but translated from the French version by the author. 



GENEVA AND OXFORD. 315 

had persuaded him to be more reasonable ;" that is to 
say, doubtless, until he had extended his hand to them, 
and ceased to proclaim them heretics and schismatics. 

Evangelical Christians of Geneva, England, and all 
other countries ! It is not to Rome that you must drag 
yourselves, " To those seven mountains, on which the 
woman sitteth, having a golden cup in her hand, full of 
abominations ;"* the pilgrimage that you must make is 
to that excellent and perfect tabernacle "not made with 
hands ;"f that "throne of grace, where we find grace 
to help in time of need."J 

It is not upon the neck of the " Man of Sin" that you 
must cast yourselves, covering him with your kisses 
and your tears ; but upon the neck of Him with whom 
" Jacob wrestled, until the breaking of the day ;"§ of 
Him " Who is seated at the right hand of God in the 
heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, 
and every name that is named, not only in this world, 
but also in that which is to come."|| 

Yes, let the children of God in the east and in the 
west arise ; let them, understanding the signs of the 
times, and seeing that the destinies of the Church de- 
pend upon the issue of the present conflicts, conflicts so 
numerous, so different, and so powerful, form a sacred 
brotherhood, and, with one heart and one soul, exclaim, 
as Moses did when the ark set forward, " Rise up, Lord, 
and let Thine enemies be scattered, and let them that 
hate Thee flee before Thee."l 

* Rev., xvii. t Heb., ix. t Ibid., iv. 

§ Gen., xxxii. II Eph., v. IT Numb., x., 35. 



316 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 



XIII. FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE. 

A DISCOURSE.* 
" Si sanctus es, comprehendisti et nosti." — St. Bernard. 
'Ev r?) TTlarei vuuv .... rr/v yvQatv. 
" Add to your faith .... knowledge." — 2 Peter, i., 5. 

Faith and knowledge, in the opinion of the world, are 
opposed to and exclusive of one another. It is said that 
faith in revealed truth is incompatible with those glori- 
ous subjects of human science by which the depths of 
the earth are sounded, the expanse of heaven is meas- 
ured, and the still more mysterious realm of the mind 
of man is examined. The names of Bacon, Newton, 
Pascal, Leibnitz, Euler, and many others have often been 
quoted in refutation of this singular assertion, and have 
proved its absurdity ; yet you will still hear it repeat- 
ed in the world, for there is not an error of any kind 
which man does not endeavor to uphold. 

We do not intend to occupy this hour in refuting this 
doctrine. We wish, rather, to inquire more deeply into 
the essence of faith, and to enter farther upon the do- 
mains of knowledge. We wish to consider a different 
sort of faith and knowledge, namely, the faith of the 
heart, or Christian life ; and Theology, or the knowledge 
of God. 

In truth, if we cross the threshold of the sanctuary of 
sacred knowledge, w T e meet with the same pretension 
as in the world, but applied to different subjects. Here 
faith is that new principle of life and holiness which 
the word of God and the Holy Ghost develop in the 
hearts of God's elect. 

* Delivered at the Theological Seminary of Geneva, on the 3d of Novem- 
ber, 1834. 



FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE. 317 

Knowledge, or Theology, is the philosophy of faith, 
the result of inquiry, of reflection, of the labor of the 
human mind applied to divine things, and endeavoring 
to comprehend them and discover the light, the tenden- 
cies, the systematic union of which they are susceptible. 

In this new field, men condemn as incompatible, not 
knowledge, or a certain historical faith which all theolo- 
gians must possess, more or less, but the living faith of 
Christians. Worldly theologians have attacked the lat- 
ter kind of faith in the same manner and with the same 
weapons with which worldly philosophers have attack- 
ed the former. According to them, there can be no 
harmony between living faith and theology. 

And we must acknowledge that there is some ground 
for their assertions. Faith and theology have often 
been, and still are, separated in the minds of many min- 
isters of the Gospel. Some are mere theologians, ac- 
quainted with the various branches of theological knowl- 
edge, and able to lay down with correctness the prin- 
ciples of the Christian system ; but in their hearts there 
is no living faith. Others, on the other hand, possess 
the faith of the heart, the Christian life, but are unac- 
quainted with theology, and regard it as a barren sci- 
ence, by which one may not expect to be profited. 

My brethren, you are exposed to both of these errors. 

We think, with many theologians, that the ministers 
of Christ ought not to separate these two points, and 
that greater usefulness in the service of God would re- 
sult from their proper combination. We have founded 
this Seminary in the name of Faith and Knowledge, of 
Christian life and Theology. We believe that, in the 
words of the apostle, the pastor ought to be a teacher.* 

We shall, then, describe, in a few words, the relations 
which exist between Christian life and Theology ; we 

* Eph., iv., 11, 

Dd2 



318 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

shall show the necessity of faith, and the advantages of 
knowledge, and we shall point out the dangers to be 
avoided. 

I. Faith. 

In the first place, I address those who, since they do 
not possess the living faith of Christians in their hearts, 
would fain supply its place with theology. 

It is impossible for the Christian, and, consequently, 
for the minister, to live without the life of faith. Do you 
then suppose that the scientific development of Christ- 
ian doctrine will produce in you that living faith with- 
out which you can not exist ? No, my brethren ; the 
work of man can not create the work of God. 

Theology is not the mother of faith ; but faith is the 
mother of theology. 

The cultivation of theological science has never pro- 
duced a revival of Christian life in the Church. Such 
revivals have emanated from the simple preaching of 
Christian truths, from that faith of the heart, that inter- 
nal conviction and experience, in accordance with which 
a man exclaims, with sacred enthusiasm, " I believed, 
and therefore have I spoken."* If there have been in- 
stances of theological instruction being the means of 
producing faith in the heart (and there have been many 
such), it has been owing to the element of faith which 
existed in that instruction, and not to the theological 
element. It is because the teacher believes, and not be- 
cause he studies, that he becomes an instrument of re- 
generation. Faith produces faith, but thought produces 
nothing but thought. Correctness, explanation, and 
systematic arrangement of doctrine never produced life. 
It is not to the school nor to the theologian that the 
minister or the layman must look for faith. They must 

* 2Cor.,iv,, 13, 



FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE. 319 

go to Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church. You must 
seek life from Him in whom "dwelleth all the fullness 
of the Godhead bodily ;"* not from the maxims of sci- 
ence. Every believer, and, consequently, every minis- 
ter, is required, in his quality of prophet, to ask directly 
■of Jesus the measure of grace. The character of a me- 
diator between God and man proceeds no more from 
the science of the theologian than from the hierarchy 
of the priest. It is not in some Theological Summary, 
or Commonplace Beok,-\ that you are to seek your faith, 
but in the Bible, in the Bible directly, by means of the 
light of the Holy Spirit which is promised to all. 

But farther : theology, far from producing Christian 
life, is itself produced by that life. It is faith that sup- 
plies science with the means of knowledge, with the 
subjects of reflection, with the elements for combination. 
For real, enlightening science is composed, no.t of ab- 
stract ideas and dead elements, but of living doctrines 
and principles inspired by the Spirit of God. 

And it is also that living faith which gives to the mind 
Che elasticity, the liberal and profound views, and the 
activity necessary to set the primary elements at work, 
and to bring forth the system in all its branches. An 
■era which was dead in faith never did and never will 
produce theology. The creating epochs of science have 
always been preceded, as history can prove, by a re- 
vival of Christian life in the Church. It was from the 
"Cradle of faith that those theological works came which 
marked the times of Augustine, the scholastics of the 
thirteenth century, and the Reformers. 

If you want to be theologians, you must bathe in the 
stream of living waters. It is faith that will give you 

* Col., ii., 9. 

t Summa Theologica, Loci Communes: usual titles of systems of theology* 
both, before and after -the Reformation. 



320 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

that impulse, without which no great work can be pro- 
duced ; that definite truth, without which you would 
wander into absurd systems; that life, without which 
you would only be walking in a field of dry bones. 

Try the other method. If Christian life is not the 
source of your theology, you will fall into one of two 
evils : either you will rush, as many have done, into the 
speculative distinctions of useless dialectics; or, receiv- 
ing a negative impulse, you will assume a hostile atti- 
tude ; you will take up arms against the objects you 
ought to defend ; you will exert a destructive influence 
in the sphere assigned to you, and, instead of raising a 
monument to the living God, you will take pleasure in 
destroying that which exists, and in amusing yourself 
at the sight of the ruins, as too many theologians, alas! 
have already done. 

And on what foundation, my brethren, would you 
have theology rest, if not on the word of God, on faith 
in the divine testimony, produced in the heart by the 
Holy Spirit ? If this be not the foundation of theology, 
it must either rest on the momentary impulse of the 
spirit of the times, or on the adventurous speculations 
of human reason. With such support, science would 
make singular mistakes and experience many a fall, and 
would wander into strange and gloomy paths. If the 
tree of knowledge is to prosper, it must, as David says, 
be " planted by the rivers of water" of the law of God ; 
it must derive constantly and solely from that pure 
water its sap and the elements of its life. Then it will 
" bring forth its fruit in its season ; its leaf shall not 
wither ; and whatsoever it doeth shall prosper." But 
if any foreign element happen to be absorbed by its 
roots, that tree will soon wither, languish, and die. 
Plant it, rather, on the hill of Golgotha, under the 



FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE. 321 

shadow of the cross, under the look of love of the Cru- 
cified, who is the Wisdom of God, and Life itself. 

That which gives life to the humblest faith of the 
poorest believer gives it likewise to the most sublime 
knowledge of the greatest divine. 

Faith is not only the- creating principle of theology ; 
it is also its renovating strength. We have but too 
many proofs that knowledge can separate itself from 
the word of God. It then goes astray ; a fever of infi- 
delity has taken possession of it ; a crisis has occurred. 
What will cure it ? What will bring it back into the 
right way ? Will ordinances, laws, or acts of power 1 
Assuredly, those who superintend public instruction 
ought to watch, lest, instead of adding life to it, they 
should put it to death. But an external power, the de- 
cisions of the civil government, or any human power, 
will never cure such a disease. If you imprison it for 
a time, it will only make the greater ravages within. 

What, then, will save science ? I answer, The life 
of the Church ; the simple faith of the believer. That 
faith and that life existed before theology and independ- 
ently of science ; they can not perish ; there is healing 
power in them. They will react powerfully on theolo- 
gy. The teachers, surrounded on all sides by the man- 
ifestations of Christian faith, would be brought back in 
spite of themselves, by a superior power, to the source 
of all light and life. They would be constrained, one 
by one, to forsake all the positions in which chance 
might place them. Truth would daily gain power over 
the enemy's camp. The opposition would always in- 
crease in strength. Science itself, obliged to acknowl- 
edge that it had been separated from that to which it 
ought to be united, would soon raise its voice in oppo- 
sition to the errors of science. Perhaps, as is usually 
the case, it was infidelity in the Church that carried in- 



322 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

fidelity into theology. The faith of the Church will 
revive faith in theology. That which gave the wound 
will heal it ; that which struck will bind up. The light 
and life of the Church constitute the sun of theology. 
When that sun is veiled, science is darkened and dies. 
When it shines again, science is illumined and revived. 

Thus, my brethren, if science is to be cultivated with 
success in a university, an academy, or a school, there 
must be liberty ; but, first of all, there must be piety. 
There must be ideas ; but, above all, there must be 
faith. There must be science ; but there must be sub- 
mission to the word of God. A theological school, if it is 
to prosper in science, must be a sanctuary. Away with 
a spirit of profanity and mockery ; away with levity, 
indecency, looseness of morals, and conformity with a 
world lying in wickedness ! It would be a death-blow 
to it, both as the temple of science, and as the nursery 
of the prophets. 

The holiness of a theological school is the most cer- 
tain warrant of its progress in knowledge. 

" The Levites shall be mine, saith the Lord."* 

II. Knowledge. 

Faith, then, is essential to theology. But there is 
another danger which we must point out ; one into 
which many stumble who regard theology as a barren 
knowledge, unadapted and useless to the Church. 

First, let us clearly understand what we mean by 
knowledge. 

This is no proud and puffed-up knowledge, but a 
humble knowledge, which is aware that it knows noth- 
ing of itself, and ought to learn every thing from the 
Bible. It is not a knowledge separated from God, but 
one which God Himself grants in answer to fervent 

* Numbers, iii., 12. 



FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE. 823 

prayer, to conscientious inquiries, to serious and holy 
meditation, the labors of which are vivified, and its in- 
fluence made effectual by His Spirit. 

The present- state of the world, and especially of the 
French people, shows but too clearly the usefulness and 
necessity of knowledge. Why is Christianity so little 
known, and why are its fundamental principles so much 
despised? We do not hesitate, my brethren, to say 
that it is because, while all other sciences have risen 
rapidly, theological science does not exist among us for 
the present generation, or, at any rate, can scarcely be 
said to exist. 

Perhaps there are eras in the social and intellectual 
development of a people when it suffices that Christian 
life should revive the Church, But it can not be so in 
the present state of society. 

When the entire being of man is developed, religion 
ought to embrace man in his entire being. It is exten- 
sive enough to do it, and there is no quality in man that 
ought to escape from its influence. The faculty of 
knowledge that is within us also finds the nourishment 
which it needs, and a field in which to develop its 
strength. The understanding comes from God, as well 
as affection, or the will. To pretend, as some have 
done, that it is enough that Christianity should speak to 
the heart, and that it may leave the understanding un- 
satisfied, is to oppose the rising of the sun over a part 
of God's creation ; it is to revolt against the order in- 
stituted by the Divine Being. 

Christianity must maintain its place. It must keep 
its position as superior to all human wisdom. Theology 
must ever be, in the bosom of Christian societies, what 
Lord Bacon, the restorer of modern science, termed it, 
"the transcendent science." 

And do not imagine that the existence of this science 



324 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

is useless for the conversion of souls. If so, why do we 
find in the countries where theological science exists, as 
in Germany, so many real Christians among laymen of 
education and intelligence, while among us we so rare- 
ly meet any in that class ? 

Nothing but the existence of science will explain this 
phenomenon. It has turned the attention of those learn- 
ed men to the instruction of God. It has also led them 
to look at this branch of the tree which they cultivate. 
Science has made the word of God and Christianity 
honorable in the eyes of the learned. They inquired 
into it at first, perhaps, merely through curiosity ; then 
Christianity took hold of their hearts, and the word of 
God saved them. 

Let us lament, then, that while all other sciences have 
been so highly honored, and found so many worshipers 
among the French people, theological science has no 
monuments or trophies ; we might almost say, it has no 
name or existence. Let us lament that, while all the 
branches of the tree of knowledge, under the shadow of 
which this generation rejoice, are full of strength, and 
are covered with beautiful fruit, this branch, though 
the principal one of the tree, is feeble, withered, leaf- 
less, and sapless. This incalculable deficiency is one 
of the greatest causes of the humiliation of the faith. 

And still, the very reverse of this is generally sup- 
posed to be true. You will hear, not only men of the 
world and enemies of the faith, but truly pious men 
and ministers, pretend that the whole evil proceeds from 
theology. 

" Theology," say they, " with its precise definitions, its 
subtile distinctions, its fixed systems, is hurtful to the 
simplicity of faith, to the fervency of Christian life, and 
brings religion into contempt in the opinion of all en- 
lightened men. Theology has been the ruin of Christ- 



FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE. 325 

ianity. O, happy days, when there was no theology ! 
O, simplicity of the Christian doctrine in the first cen- 
turies of the Church ! would that you might return 
again !" 

This simplicity of the early centuries, we will say in 
passing, of which so many boast, does not perhaps de- 
serve as much eulogy as it generally receives. It fre- 
quently proceeded from ignorance, rather than from 
strict attachment to the line of truth ; it was the simplic- 
ity of children who know very little, rather than that 
of the man who, perceiving what is right and what is 
wrong, stands by the right. And this simplicity, so 
often longed for by men who would fain have piety 
without knowledge, was far from being free from er- 
rors, sometimes from grave errors. 

But let us proceed to the objection we have just 
named. It is valid only with regard to the mistakes of 
science, not in respect to science itself. It is true that 
there is a false tendency of science which is repugnant 
to the simplicity of faith. It is only by means of Christ- 
ian life that strength and prosperity will be pledged td 
science. When it is developed independently of that 
life, it loses itself in vain forms and absurd distinctions. 
It becomes a play of dialectics which stifles the last 
breath of life in those who cultivate it, and which de- 
prives theology and religion of the esteem which they 
deserve. 

But that is not science. That is not the true branch 
of the tree. That is a parasitic plant, which, in spite of 
the efforts it makes to unite with the tree to which it 
clings, and to mingle its dry branches and its yellow 
leaves with it, will be recognized by the owner of the 
tree to be foreign and pernicious to it, and will be torn 
away from it. 

This objection, therefore, turns in favor of true sci- 
E E 



326 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

ence, which, emanating from the word of God, and inti- 
mately connected with Christian life, avoids these unhap- 
py errors. It does not present a fleshless skeleton to 
the world as the symbol of truth ; but a body covered 
with flesh, and filled with the Spirit and with life from 
heaven. It does not isolate any one of the faculties of 
man. In addressing his understanding, it also address- 
es his heart. What you reproach it with not having, it 
possesses emphatically. Consequently, it will do the 
reverse of what your fears imagined. By attacking 
every man, it will gain over all. 

It is true, some say, that science is profitable for the 
world, for those without, as the Scriptures say ; but it is 
of no use for the Church. 

Gentlemen, this is a singular delusion. We have de- 
fined true science as performing the most remarkable 
services for the Church. It preserves the Christian 
doctrine pure from foreign elements ; and when it has 
been contaminated by them, it will purify it. 

Such elements readily penetrate, first, into the Christ- 
ian life, then into the spirit of Christianity, and, lastly, into 
science itself. This took place in the first eras of the 
Church. Foreign elements at that time united so close- 
ly with the scriptural elements, and were so thoroughly 
incorporated in the faith of Christians, that the tru« 
could scarcely be distinguished from the false. Teach- 
ers and believers presented an inconceivable medley of 
truth and falsehood. 

This discerning of various elements, this separation 
of the true from the false, is one of the most glorious 
duties of true science. It is one of the tasks to which 
God has designed it. His piercing and certain eye dis- 
tinguishes, in that mingled assembly, what is of God and 
what is of man. As a faithful servant of the master of 
the family, theology draws up that net which has been 



FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE. 327 

lying in the sea for centuries, and in the course of time 
has gathered together all sorts of things. With the 
torch of revelation in its hand, it brings to light and 
separates that which is vile from that which is pure. It 
puts the good portion in its boats and throws away the 
worthless. 

And it keeps pure that which it has purified. It 
watches, like a faithful sentinel, lest the pride of human 
reason or the errors of enthusiasm should blight the 
plant which it has saved. As those officers who have 
the charge of the treasures of a prince, and who prevent 
common elements from being mingled with the pure 
gold of which the royal jewels are made, so sacred the- 
ology has the care of the Lord's heritage, to preserve 
the Christian doctrine, that jewel of God, pure from hu- 
man dross, and in the holiness and royal splendor which 
belong to every thing that is of heavenly origin. 

But we wish to come nearer to you, students of this 
sacred theology, and who are called to be in future the 
dispensers of its treasures. 

How great are the advantages of science for the min- 
ister of the word ! Of how much service will it be to 
you, in the present times particularly ! How necessary 
it is at a period when there are so many objections, 
doubts, and controversies ; not merely with regard to 
certain points of minor importance, but also to the fun- 
damental doctrines of salvation ! 

It is true science, gentlemen, science formed under 
the influence of the Spirit and the word, and blessed by 
God, that will give you a clear insight into the Divine 
revelations ; that will show you new and unexpected 
treasures there, which are hidden to an ordinary perusal, 
and which, while increasing your knowledge, will en- 
rich your experience and render your ministry more 
effectual 



328 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

It is science that, by leading you to make a proper 
estimate of the sacred doctrines, as well of the lamen- 
table errors of the times, by manifesting the faith and un- 
veiling the weakness of the Church, will show you the 
things that are, and those that ought to be, by means of 
those that have been, and will make up for your youth 
by the riches of well-tried experience. 

It is science that will teach you to measure with a 
penetrating eye the present state of the Church ; it will 
show you the evils against which you are to be guard- 
ed ; it will keep you from exaggerated views, from hes- 
itation, from hasty decisions, to which your heart is ex- 
posed ; and, in the midst of the whirlwind of human 
opinions that surrounds you, it will add to your convic- 
tions, views, and judgment, that clearness, correctness, 
and firmness which you would seek in vain within 
yourselves. 

It is science that will make you capable of discerning 
good from evil, the useful from the hurtful, with rela- 
tion to the Christian Church in general, as well as to the 
flock which the Head of the Church may intrust to your 
special care ; it will qualify you for keeping an account 
of times, places and circumstances; it will show you 
clearly the object which you ought to have in your 
career, and the means of reaching it ; and will thus ren- 
der your ministry more really and durably useful. 

It is science that will teach you to shun those stum- 
bling-blocks by which, as we so frequently see, the pur- 
est zeal, when not enlightened by knowledge, will be 
overthrown and destroyed ; and which, by giving to all 
your labors a character of wisdom, reflection, and judg- 
ment, will make your ministry honorable, even in the 
eyes of the world. 

It is science that will give you those characteristics 
so necessary to the Christian minister, and so rarely met 



FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE. 329 

in the same person : liberality, without latitudinarian- 
ism ; exclusive submission to the word of God, without 
narrowness ; and which, making your convictions both 
profound and extensive, establishing your mind and en- 
larging your heart, will permit you to stretch out the 
arms of charity and to embrace all your brethren, with- 
out wandering from the only source of truth, the only 
impregnable center of faith. 

The science that emanates from God will guard you 
from that sad mechanism which so frequently attacks 
the evangelical ministry, and which turns the service of 
Jesus Christ into a paltry trade. For true science will 
always recall the spirit, idea, and life to your mind, in all 
your meditations and in all your labors. It will not allow 
your understanding to become like that of a workman. 
It will ever remind you that the Spirit of God ought to 
combine with the things of human life, the breath from 
heaven with the elements of earth. It will remind you 
that you are " wise men."* It will oppose your being 
absorbed with material things. As the voice of God, it 
will keep your understanding from becoming gross and 
your mind from growing dull. 

The science which emanates from God will save you 
from Rationalism. Why are so many young theologi- 
ans rushing into it, and passing so eagerly from one de- 
gree to another in it ? Because they hope to find food 
for their understanding, for their reason. Vain hope ! 
In the mean time, their hearts wither, their reason is 
degraded, and their intelligence contracted. It is Christ- 
ian science that treasures up what their vague and some- 
times proud, but often noble desires are seeking. Young 
Levites ! betake yourselves to it. It can satisfy you. 
Do not expect to find with your understanding, that lasts 
but a day, all that God has offered you in the depths of 

* l Cor., x., 15. 

E e 2 



330 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

His eternity. Science will satisfy all your wants. It 
will show you in Christ all the treasures of divine intel- 
ligence. It will put you in possession of a light which, 
compared with Rationalism, is what the sun is to the ig- 
nis fatuus in our marshes. Then, discovering at once 
the paltriness of the erroneous productions of the human 
intelligence, and the grandeur of the manifestations of 
God's wisdom, you will exclaim, with the greatest of 
theologians, when, after wandering in the labyrinth of 
systems, he had found the divine science: "I have known 
Thee too late !"* 

The science which emanates from God will preserve 
you from that false enthusiasm which, eagerly receiving 
certain sensations, or snatching certain ideas out of their 
places, sacrifices them to an unruly imagination, where 
they bubble and ferment till they burst forth into de- 
plorable excesses ; at one time, into theosophical specu- 
lations ; at another, into the disorderly flight of a vapor- 
ous mind ; at another, into proud pretensions to gifts 
and offices which no longer exist, or to a fantastic state 
of the Church. Theological science will greatly assist 
you in discovering all these errors. It will show them 
to you in former times, together with the unhappy fruit 
they bore ; it will acquaint you with their intimate con- 
nection with the corruption of the human heart, and 
with fatal doctrines ; it will enable you to separate what- 
ever may be good in these things from the evil, and will 
thus shelter you from a dangerous contagion. 

The science which emanates from God will empower 
you to refute the absurd sophistry of the times ; to attack 
specious errors with success ; to enter into collision, if 
necessary, with the skillful, using the weapons of the 
understanding ; with the learned, using the weapons of 
science ; which weapons, as we have already said, can 

* Augustine, 



FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE. 331 

not change the heart, bat can often clear it of unfortu- 
nate prejudices, and thus prepare, to the joy of heaven, 
for the conversion of a sinner. 

But, gentlemen, I ask myself whether it is necessary 
to prove the necessity of science for the minister of 
Christ, whereas its necessity for every disciple, for ev- 
ery Christian, ought to be a truth universally acknowl- 
edged. 

It was to all those who have obtained a faith of like 
value with that of the servants of Jesus Christ that the 
Apostle Peter addressed the exhortation : "Add to your 
faith knowledge."* It is true that there are branches 
of knowledge with which it is not absolutely necessary 
that every Christian should be acquainted, though it were 
desirable that all possessed them. But there is a Christ- 
ian science in which all ought to make constant progress, 
according to their peculiar faculties and circumstances. 
Is it only those who are to teach the natural sciences 
that study them ? Why, then, should none but theologi- 
ans study theology, which is the science of God, that 
God " who is above all, and through all, and in you all ?'*f 
In an unhealthy climate, do not all, at the approach of 
a dreaded contagion, endeavor to acquire medical 
knowledge ? And is not science which treats of the 
remedy by which man can escape eternal death, great 
enough, important enough in the eyes of all, to be studied 
by all ? How much more by you, ministers of Christ ! 

We hope that what we have said will suffice to de- 
monstrate, to those who have seriously attended to it, the 
necessity of not separating faith from science, theology 
from piety, the pastor from the teacher. And we have 
thus endeavored to make known one of the ends for 
which this seminary was established, both to those who, 
rejecting faith, speak only of science, and to those who, 
rejecting science, speak only of faith. 

* 2 Peter, i„ 5. f Eph,, iv., 6, 



332 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

Thus, gentlemen, let us go to the study and the clos- 
et ; to the closet and the study ! Let us obtain the gift 
of God's Spirit, above all, by prayer. Let us abase 
ourselves in humility, before we exalt ourselves by re- 
flection and knowledge ; for. " if any man think that he 
knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought 
to know."* Like those aerial vehicles which the inge- 
nuity of man has invented, we must empty ourselves of 
ourselves before we can arise into the lofty abodes of 
knowledge and contemplation. 

Let faith be the key with which w r e unlock the treas- 
ure, to the possession of which we are invited. For 
faith makes known what the human understanding 
could never discover. The life which comes from God 
explains that which meditation can not. Faith is the 
eye which we must have to penetrate into that unknown 
land of divine things which is the domain of theology. 
Faith is the true organ of the knowledge of God. It 
shows us the invisible, and explains the incomprehensi- 
ble. " The things of God knoweth no man, but the 
Spirit of God. Now we have received the spirit which 
is of God, that we might know the things that are given 

tousofGod."t 

Farther : let holiness, a truly Christian life and con- 
versation, give us an intelligence which can be obtain- 
ed by them alone. For what is it but sin that obscures 
the mind and hinders it from understanding? Take the 
veil away, and you will see. The more you die unto 
sin, the clearer your eye will be, the brighter your 
knowledge, and the wider your perceptions. Every 
Christian work, all self-denial, is not only a step in 
sanctification, but also in science, in theology. If the 
angels know more than we do, it is because they are 
purer than we. Sin is darkness, and holiness is light. 

* 1 Cor,, viii, 2. f 1 Cor., ii., 11, 12. 



FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE. 333 

Let us walk in the light, that we may know Him who 
is light. "We shall see Him as He is. And every 
man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even 
as He is pure."* 

Thus, disciples of the science of God, we say to you, 
Let us pray ; let us believe ; let us be holy and blame- 
less. But we will add, Let us study. 

Let us labor, gentlemen. Let us carefully examine 
those great documents of sacred theology, the Old and 
New Testaments ; those two pillars, at the foot of 
which the simple-hearted take refuge, and which, to the 
wise and skillful, raise their mysterious heads to the 
heavens. 

Let us gather with care and a sound judgment all 
those facts, those instructions, theories, truths, and er- 
rors which history relates to us, as well as the light 
that philosophy sheds on the domain of science ; always 
grasping firmly the guiding thread of our holy faith. 
Let us use our understanding ; let us explain, discern, 
inquire into all the elements that science furnishes us. 
Let us weigh every point of doctrine considered apart 
and in itself; let us weigh its deepest meaning. And, 
at the same time, let us collect all the parts, learn to 
know their connections, their affinities, admire their 
completeness, their unity, and magnificent harmony. 

Let us rise by sanctified meditation to the survey of 
the immense field spread out before us. Let us view 
science in all its aspects. Let us also stand on a holy 
mountain, whence we may see the land which the Lord 
has given us to conquer and possess. Let us keep near 
to the river, and then, if necessary, let us pursue its 
w r hole extent. Let us glance up to its source, and fol- 
low its current afar off. Let us distinguish its primary 
from its secondary streams ; its principal branch from 

* 1 John, iii., 2, 3. 



334 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

the accessory branches. Let us examine the marsh in 
which its pure water is corrupted, because the impulse 
of the former stream is wanting. Let us contemplate 
it when its fructifying waters are flowing along shores 
enriched by its gifts, and when its foaming waves rush 
on with impetuosity. Let us consider the tributary 
streams that bring foreign waters to it, and the various 
soils over which it rolls, that we may be well acquaint- 
ed with the elements it derives from them. It is by all 
these branches of knowledge that science is formed. 
We must weigh all the. influences, discern all the com- 
binations, that we may derive from them the Christian 
system, and construct sacred theology, w r hich is man's 
noblest science, since it is the science of God. 

Gentlemen ! behold the ardor with which those who 
study either the body of man, or legislation, or the sci- 
ences of nature, are laboring. As disciples of theology, 
know and understand that yours is a grander field. Let 
the zeal of your contemporaries in the labors of their 
vocations cause you to reflect, and animate you with 
new zeal. You have to study God and man. Think 
of this. 

Raise up science, which is calling on you, from the 
degradation into which it has fallen. Restore it to its 
primitive greatness. Let a sacred jealousy for it in- 
flame your minds. On whom may we rely, if not on 
you ? 

And when you have become, as the Scripture says, 
" men in understanding," become, also, " in malice, chil- 
dren."* Let our knowledge lead us to the faith of the 
simple, but to a firmer faith, less exposed to change, 
and which, explored in every direction, and well known 
in all its phases, may be firmly defended and wisely 
distributed by us, as milk to the babes and as meat to 
the strong men. 

* 1 Cor., xiv., 20. 



THE VOICE OF THE ANCIENTS. 335 



XIV. THE VOICE OF THE ANCIENTS TO THE 

MEN OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY; 

OR, READ THE BOOK. 

AN ESSAY. 
11 But the word of the Lord endureth forever."—! Pet., i, 25. 

PROLOGUE 

BETWEEN THREE YOUNG MEN OF THE NINETEENTH 
CENTURY. 

First young Man. Society is dissolving. What 
bond is there that can hold it closely together ? What 
sentiment shall pervade it ? It is true that there is one : 
it is egotism. And, as a sequel to egotism, despair often 
follows. And then often, in the train of despair, comes 
suicide. What can cure this disease that rages amono- 
us? & 

Myself. Faith. 

First young Man. Ay, faith ; that is, doubtless, a 
noble sentiment ; but what kind of faith ? Do you mean 
that which the sergeant had, who blew his brains out, 
exclaiming, " I believe in Victor Hugo ?" or that of— ' 

Myself. Faith in God. 

First young Man. Does not every body in France 
believe in God in one way or another? and yet we are 
not healed. 

Myself. Faith in God does not consist merely in be- 
lieving that God exists, but also in believing what God 
says. When we have faith in any one, we believe his 
word ; now in France men do not believe what God 
has said. 

First young Man. I know what Cousin, Hugo, La- 
martine, and Chateaubriand have said, for their works 



336 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

are within my reach. But where, I pray, am I to find 
what God has said ? 

Myself. In the Bible ; that is, the Book ; the Book of 
the nations, the Book of God. 

First young Man. The Bible ; yes, I have heard of 
it, but I own that I have never read it, nor even seen it. 
It can not be as widely spread as Lamartine's Medita- 
tions or Beranger's Songs. It is scarcely spoken of at 
all in France. And is it ever mentioned out of France? 

Myself. The Bible has been translated into one hun- 
dred and fifty languages ; it is disseminated among all 
nations and tribes. There are dialects in which it is 
the only written book. The savages of the islands as- 
semble in crowds to lie down and sleep before the hum- 
ble dwelling of the missionary, where it is printed in 
their own language, each eager to be the first to possess 
it, sheet by sheet ; and the two or three hundred mill- 
ions of inhabitants of China are now receiving it. 

First young Man. It must be very old, to have trav- 
eled so far. 

Myself. When the earliest of its authors was com- 
posing his works, the Greeks had not yet learned the 
art of writing. 

First young Man. What has it been doing since it 
has been in the world ? Has it produced any effects to 
be compared with those of the writings of our day ? 

Myself. When the world was crumbling into dust, in 
the times of the emperors of Rome, this Book triumphed 
over the corruption of the South, and created a new 
world. And when the barbarians threatened to crush 
reviving Europe, this Book triumphed over the barbar- 
ity of the North, and created modern society. It can 
save us a third time, and it has already converted the 
ends of the earth to the true God. 

First young Man. I am sure that, if these things 



THE VOICE OF THE ANCJENTS. 337 

were known and understood, men would pay more at- 
tention to that Book. 

Myself. It ought to be read ; it ought to be in every 
school, in every cottage ; every Frenchman ought to 
possess it. 

Third young Man. My dear city friends, here you 
have been talking about religion for half an hour, and 
you have not mentioned either the Church, or the bish- 
op, or the curate. We in the country are not so far 
gone as that, and we have great respect for what you, 
gentlemen, do not even think of. Learn that, in France, 
people still go to confession, and still believe in the 
priest, who alone has a right to direct us. Now, sir, the 
Church forbids that the Book which you are advocating 
should be read by the people. 

Myself. How can men of God forbid that God's 
Book should be read ? 

First young Man. What are you saying ? Why, I 
saw a notice of that book in a paper, and it said that it 
was published under the patronage of the Archbishop 
of Paris. 

Myself. What ! the priests forbid that the people 
should read the Holy Scriptures ! That is just as if 
the king's ministers were to forbid Frenchmen reading 
the charter which it is their duty to execute. 

First young Man. Some rogue will soon say that the 
priests have good reasons for not letting others see what 
there is in that Book. 

Third young Man. Never mind. The Church is al- 
ways the same ; it still commands that which the holy 
fathers commanded in former days, in spite of the pre- 
tensions or mockery of this generation. We must sub- 
mit to what has, from all antiquity, been acknowledged 
as true. 

Myself. And who has told you that the Church wants 
F f 



338 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

to keep to itself the treasure which it has received to 
deal out bountifully to others ? 

Third young Man. If the ancient doctors of the 
Church have desired that it should be read, why is it 
not shown to us ? 

First young Man. If the book is what you say it is* 
why is no appeal made to this generation that it should 
read it ? 

Myself. (To the first). You ask for an appeal to the 
men of our age. (To the third). You want to hear the 
voice of the ancients. Well, then ; if such an appeal 
and such voices are to be heard? you must promise one 
thing. 

First young Man, What is that ? 

Myself. To listen seriously. 

Both. We promise to do so. 



THE VOICE OF THE ANCIENTS TO THE MEN OF THE 
NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

I. 

O ye nations 1 listen to the voice of the Lord ! 

God hath spoken, He who in the beginning made 
heaven and earth hath spoken to men. His voice is 
mighty as the strong wind which splits the mountains 
and breaks the rocks to pieces. His voice is mild and 
comforting ; it penetrates the heart and cheers the soul 
like a soft and gentle sound coming down from heaven. 

G man ! Thy Creator, thy Father, thy Friend, thy 
Savior, thy God hath spoken here below, and thou hast 
not listened yet I 

Thou hast heard the voices of thy companions in 
pleasure : their tales, their jokes, their boisterous laugh- 
ter hast thou heard ; but the words of thy God hast thou 
not yet heard ! 



THE VOICE OF THE ANCIENTS. 339 

Thou hast listened to the voices of tempters, whose 
words are flattering, whose lips seem to drop with honey, 
while their words are bitter as gall ; who say, " Come 
with us !" but whose steps lead down to death, and 
whose paths end in the grave : but to the words of thy 
God thou hast not yet listened ! 

Thou hast listened to the voices in the market-place, 
or in the stores of those who are buying or selling ; to 
the voices of business-men, and the servants of Mam- 
mon ; to the voice of thine own heart, saying, " Heap 
up ! heap up !" but to the words of thy God thou hast 
not yet listened ! 

Thou hast listened to the voice of the courier who 
has said, when passing by, " Such an event has just 
happened," and to the voices of thy friends, asking, 
" What is the news ?" and to the voices of those who 
read of the debates of statesmen or the combats of sold- 
iers : but to the words of thy God thou hast not yet 
listened ! 

O man ! Thy Creator has spoken on earth. Thou 
hast listened to all other voices ; but to the voice of thy 
God alone thou hast not listened. 

II. 

O ye nations ! listen to the voice of the Lord ! 

Can He who hath given thee life forget thee ? Can 
not He who hath formed thee out of nothing show thee the 
way to happiness? Doth not thy Maker know thee 
very well, and doth He not know what is good and 
profitable for thee ? 

O man ! Where wilt thou find a more powerful 
friend ? Where a more tender friend than thy Creator 
and thy God ? To whom wilt thou listen, if not to Him 1 

It was on an evening early in spring ; all was quiet. 
The moon in its mild radiance beamed through the win- 



340 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

dows into the houses. The people had played, they 
had laughed and danced till a late hour. The young 
men and the maidens had separated. The calm of 
night followed the noise of festivity ; and they reflected. 
The hearts of some were aroused, and they said : " Yet 
this is not happiness ; we want something else. The 
time of our life is as nothing before God. There is oth- 
er happiness ; eternal happiness. What shall give it to 
us ? What shall point out the way ?" And methought 
I heard a voice from heaven answering, " The words 
of your God !" 

O sons and daughters of men ! The w r ords of your 
God will show you that path. Read those words. 

It was summer. All was active in the city and in 
the country. The citizen was busy in his counting- 
house, the workman in his shop, the mother in her fam- 
ily, the soldier on the parade-ground, the laborer in the 
field. There was a sound like the buzzing of insects at 
noon ; but it w 7 as loud, for it was the buzzing of men. 
And many said, with a hollow look and a sad tone, " Ah! 
there is no true happiness in this bustle and business. 
What shall show us where to find it ?" And methought 
I heard a voice from heaven answering " The words 
of your God. O ye children of men, the words of your 
God will teach you the road to happiness. Read them." 

It was an autumn day. The wind had bared the 
trees, their dry leaves covered the ground, and the old 
men and women were sitting before their houses and 
exposing their weakened limbs to the sunshine, while 
their children were at work. And every one was 
thinking to himself, " Soon my last sun will shine ; soon 
the wind of death will loosen me, like these leaves, from 
the tree of life, and will lay me on the ground like them. 
What shall give me an assurance of immortality ? what 
shall bring me eternal life ?" And methought I heard a 



THE VOICE OF THE ANCIENTS. 341 

voice from heaven answering, " O ye aged ! The words 
of your God will give you this. Read them." 

It was winter. All was dry ; all was frozen ; all was 
dead. It was the time when men, meeting together, 
incite one another to sin ; but it was also the time when 
God speaks with power to souls. The conscience, that 
invisible witness which each of us carries about in his 
heart, seemed to be awakened in some. Men and 
women, the young and the aged, in the town and in the 
country, were weeping over their sins. One of these 
voices said, in a tone of terror, " I have sinned. Ah ! 
death, which reigns over nature now, has entered also 
into my soul. I do nothing but evil. Who can sustain 
the day of the Lord's coming ? Who will stand when 
He shall appear ! My sin ! my sin ! who shall deliver 
me from it ? Who shall save me ?" And methought I 
heard a voice from heaven answering, " Jesus Christ ! 
Jesus Christ will deliver thee ! He has come to seek 
and to save that which was lost. Read the word of 
thy God, and thou wilt know the Savior, thou wilt pos- 
sess salvation !" 

III. 

Listen to this word, which is the complaint that I 
make concerning you, O house of Israel ! 

It seems as though there was a charm upon men. 
Notwithstanding such entreaties, they will not take that 
Book, which is so pleasant to the heart, and wherein the 
word of God is written. 

This Book was offered to a woman with white hair, 
with fieshless fingers and trembling limbs. She replied, 
" Ah ! leave me alone with your word of God !" And 
she rejected the Book and him who offered it, and clo- 
sed the door. 

Ff2 



342 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

God ! the children of this generation seek worth- 
less books ; but they have despised Thy word ! 

This Book was offered to a stout man, with a proud 
look and a powerful frame. He laughed loudly at this 
offer, as the demons of hell laugh. He uttered a horri- 
ble oath, and the Book fell back into the hands of him 
that offered it. 

O God ! the children of this generation seek vile 
books ; but they have despised Thy word ! 

A man came forward. At first sight he seemed ven- 
erable. His palate seemed sweeter than honey, but his 
words were as sharp as a two-edged sword. Be- 
neath a sheep's clothing gleamed the cruel eyes of a 
devouring wolf. He exclaimed, " You must not read 
the words of your God !" Then he blasphemed against 
them, and snatching the Book from the hands of an old 
man who found in it the hope of eternal life and his 
highest comfort, he threw it into the fire with his sac- 
rilegious hands, and the flames arose and consumed it. 
I looked, and instead of the oracles of Israel I saw noth- 
ing but ashes. 

O God ! the children of this generation seek fables 
cunningly devised, and doctrines of lies ; but they have 
despised Thy word ! 

You must not read the words of God, say they. And 
yet the voice of the ancients has spoken. The exhorta- 
tions of the Lord's saints have been heard. 

All the teachers of Christ's people, in the past times 
of its glory, have entreated men to read the sacred writ- 
ings of the Lord, and to listen to the oracles of the 
mighty God. 

But alas ! Christianity is degenerate ; it no longer lis- 
tens to the voices of its first benefactors. 

O rash tongue, which hast said, " You must not read 
the words of God," didst thou not fear lest the breath of 



THE VOICE OF THE ANCIENTS. 343 

the mouth of the Lord should be sent forth, and should 
paralyze and silence thee forever ? And you, sacrile- 
gious hands, which took the word of God from that old 
man and burned it before him, did you not fear lest 
death should stretch its bony fingers over you, and make 
you as dry and lifeless as itself? 

O ye nations ! listen to the voice of the saints of the 
Lord, of the teachers of truth, of the fathers of the Church 
of Christ, of those who are now in the kingdom of heav- 
en with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 

Christian people ! they speak to you from those stakes 
and crosses where they were put to death here below 
for the sake of Christ's name. They speak to you from 
the heavens, where they now reign with Christ in His 
glory. Listen to their voices ; they are friendly voices. 
They fought while on earth for that Gospel to which 
you owe every thing, both the consecration of your lit- 
tle children and the peaceful rest of your old men, and 
the light of your full-grown years, and the joys of the 
domestic fireside, and the arts of peace, and, above all, 

STERNAL LIFE. 

Child of man, whoever thou art, whether man or 
woman, young or old, layman or priest, wise or igno- 
rant, rich or poor, listen : this cloud of witnesses calls 
to thee from heaven to take the words of thy God in thy 
hands, to read them, to treasure them in thy heart, and 
to practice them in thy life. 

Come, then ; travel through the primitive ages ; but 
first put off thy shoes from thy feet, for the place to 
which thou drawest nigh is holy. He whose name is 
I am, the Head and Finisher of our faith, is about to 
speaL 



344 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

IV. 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was 
with God, and the Word was God. 

The same was in the beginning with God. 

All things were made by Him ; and without Him 
was not any thing made that was made. 

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us 
(and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-be- 
gotten of the Father), full of grace and truth. His 
name was 

Jesus Christ. 

Eighteen centuries ago God became man. I say unto 
you, there was great joy on earth then. 

All who heard Him and believed on Him had eter- 
nal life. Darkness fled before His light. 

Ah ! we can hear Him no more ! We can see Him 
no morel He has returned to heaven. 

Sons of men ! you can hear Him. His word is in 
your midst. Why do you not read it ? 

He who was in the beginning and became man eigh- 
teen centuries ago, to save man, fixed His penetrating 
eye upon the ages to come. He saw that future- gener- 
ations would also cry out for eternal life. He wished to 
leave on earth the means by which they might be saved. 
He opened His mouth and gave them a commandment. 

O ye nations 1 listen to the commandment of Jesus 
Christ ! 

" Search the Scriptures ; for in them ye think ye 
have eternal life : and they are they which testify 

OF ME."* 

Thus spake Jesus Christ. This is the first and great 
voice. 

Lord ! make us to understand these words* 

* John, v., 36. 



THE VOICE OF THE ANCIENTS. 345 

V. 

Sons of men, read the Book. 

A man had encouraged the murderers of the first 
martyr, and kept their garments while they were stoning 
him. And this man, lying prostrate on the earth in the 
highway, heard a voice speaking unto him. And he 
said, " Who art thou ?" And the voice answered, " I 
am Jesus, whom thou persecutest." Then the voice 
continued, saying, " Arise, and stand upon thy feet : for 
I send thee to the Gentiles, to open their eyes, and to 
turn them from darkness to light." And this man be- 
came the great laborer whom God employed to replant 
the tree of life in the dreary dwelling of man. 

His name was 

ST. PAUL. 

Asia, Macedonia, Greece, and Rome heard his voice. 
A celestial fire inspired those dead bodies. 

Men of this century, there is instruction still for you ; 
there are still words addressed to you. 

There are some who, in the error of their minds, 
say, "All Scripture is not good. It is not sufficient to 
instruct, to save, to fit for good works." 
i O ye nations ! listen to the words of St. Paul : " All 
Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profita- 
ble for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruc- 
tion in righteousness : that the man of God may be 
perfect, thoroughly furnished unto good works."* 

This is the second voice. 

Lord ! make us to understand these words. 

VI. 

Sons of men, read the Book. 

* 2 Tim., iii., 16, 17. 



346 DISCOURSES AND ES3AYS. 

The Son had scattered the seed ; the Holy Spirit 
made it fruitful ; the minds of the Jews and the heathen, 
a field long barren, showed symptoms of life, and sacred 
churches were seen to arise every where, like trees 
covered with blossoms and fruit. 

Among the Jewish believers there were some who 
deserved the name of noble, and the praises of the Holy 
Ghost. These were 

THE BELIEVERS OF BEREA. 

And why ? Because they read the Book daily. And 
because they would not believe what their preachers 
told them, unless they found it in the Book. 

Yet these preachers were great apostles ; they were 
Paul and Silas. 

Children of our age, imitate the Christians of Berea ; 
do not believe your preachers, unless what they teach 
you is in the Book ; wherefore, read it. 

St. Luke says : " Those of Berea were more noble 
than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the 
word with all readiness of mind, and searched the 
Scriptures daily, whether those things were so."* 

This is the third voice. 

Lord ! make us to understand these words. 

VII. 

Sons of men, read the Book. 

Sixteen centuries ago, where the waters of the Rhone 
and the Saone unite, there was a great light. A son of 
the East, a disciple of Polycarp, who was a disciple of 
the apostle whom Jesus loved, had come across the seas, 
had ascended the Rhone, had stopped at the city of 
Lyons, and had become its bishop. And all the people 
who inhabited the banks of the Rhone and the Saone, 

* Acts, xvii., 11. 



THE VOICE OF THE ANCIENTS. 347 

as well as those still farther off, were ravished by his 
doctrine. They forsook their idols, and worshiped 
Jesus Christ. Christ blessed them with His pierced 
hands, and they began to live. 
This man's name was 

ST. IREN^US, A.D. 177. 

O ye nations I listen to the instructions which St 
Irenseus gave, sixteen hundred years ago, on the banks 
of the Rhone and the Saone. 

You assert that the Scriptures are obscure and am- 
biguous. Irenasus says, " These things are laid before 
our eyes, openly and without ambiguity ',* in the various 
parts of the Scriptures. All the Scriptures, the proph- 
ets, the Gospels, can be heard equally by all,-\ openly and 
without ambiguity. Those who close their eyes to so 
clear a revelation J seem very stupid,§ and are not will- 
ing to see the light of instruction." 

This is the fourth voice. 

Lord ! make us to understand these words. 

VIII. 

Sons of men, read the Book. 

A man eager in pursuit of knowledge, who was 
still a slave to the worship of false gods, traveled over 
Greece, Ionia, and Italy, and attended, in all these coun- 
tries, the schools of worldly philosophers, for the pur- 
pose of finding truth there. And he drew nigh the 
bauks of the Nile, to the city of learning ; and he heard 
Jesus Christ preached there. He believed. He re- 

* Aperte et sine ambiguo. 

\ Similiter ab omnibus audiri possint. X Tarn lucidam. 

§ Valde habetes. (Irenseus, bishop of Lyons ; five books against all the her- 
esies. Book ii., chap, xlvi.) As it would take too much time and space to 
give the Latin and Greek quotations in full, we will quote but a few passa- 
ges, and refer the reader to the original. 



348 DISCOURSES AXD ESSAYS. 

ceived the remission of his sins from the Redeemer, and 

broke his idols to pieces. Soon he himself spread the 
light of Christ in Egypt, at Jerusalem and at Antioch, 
Thousands of ministers of God were educated under 
his care. 

His name was 

ST. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, A.D. 190. 

!Men of our days, you say that " The spirit of the age 
and evil doctrines have caused many to err ; for such 
the Scriptures were not made. They can not under- 
stand them." 

Hear what the doctor from the Xile replies : " Let 
those whose eyes are dimmed by a bad education and 
by evil doctrines hasten to approach the light, the truth, 
the Sacred Scriptures, which will reveal to them things 
that can not be written. The Sacred Scriptures light 
the spark of the soul ; they open its eye, that it may see; 
and, like the husbandman who grafts a tree, they com- 
municate something new to the soul."* 

This is the fifth voice. 

Lord ! make us to understand these words, 

IX. 

Sons of men, read the Book. 

Persecution was raging among the churches of Egypt. 

The people arose in tumult against the Christians, and 
Severus crushed them with his scepter. A young man, 
sixteen years of age, stood by when soldiers seized his 
father. In vain he cried out ; Leonides was cast into 
a dungeon. The young man wanted to run to the 
courts of the pagans ; he, too, wanted to confess Jesus 
Christ ; he wanted to sacrifice his head to the murder- 

* Upbg ro oiKtiov oug 3a6c^iru>, htl rr t v akqOivrpt, Trp> eyypdpuc r& 
ay papa, &c. — Works of St. Clement of Alexandria. Stromatum, lib. i., p, 274. 



THE VOICE OF THE ANCIENTS. 349 

ers of his brethren, while his father was sacrificing his. 
But his afflicted mother enfolded him in her arms, and, 
seeing that he was about to escape from her, took his 
toga and his tunic, and hid the garments of her son, to 
save his life. Then the young man, unable to share his 
father's lot, exclaimed to him, "Beware, at least, that 
you do not renounce the name of Jesus Christ for our 
sakes." 

Leonides died the death of a martyr, and left his wife 
a widow, his son without a guide, and six small children 
orphans. And the young man became a doctor, and 
sat down in the seat of Clement. And if Clement taught 
a thousand, the son of Leonides taught ten thousand. 

His name was 

ORIGEN, a.d. 220. 

Men of our age, listen to the voice which ravished 
the East ; listen to it in your cottages, in your palaces, 
and within the walls of your cities. 

You say, " Who shall teach us this Scripture ? Shall 
men reveal its mysteries and explain their meaning? 
Shall a human tribunal V 

This doctor of the Church answers : M My son ! first 
of all read the Holy Scriptures attentively; but I say 
attentively, for it is with much attention that those di- 
vine writings ought to be read, lest they should be too 
hastily spoken or judged of If thou dost persevere in 
the study of the Holy Book with seriousness and faith, 
knock, and that which is now closed to thee will be 
opened by that porter* of whom Jesus speaks in the 
Gospel according to St. John, in the tenth chapter and 
third verse. Still, it is not enough to seek and to knock ; 
the most necessary thing for understanding divine things 
is prayer. The Lord exhorts us to pray when He says, 

* Jesus Christ Himself. 

Gg 



350 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

not only, ' Seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall 
be opened unto you ;' but also, * Ask, and it shall be 
given you.' "* 

This is the sixth voice. 

Lord ! make us to understand these words. 

X. 

Sons of men, read the Book. 

A bishop was filling Carthage, Africa, and the whole 
West with the knowledge of Christ. Persecution was 
raging in the empire. The Bishop of Carthage was 
also to lay his venerable head upon the block. They 
wished to lead him to Utica, the birthplace of Cato. 
But he escaped from his persecutors ; for he desired to 
die, if die he must, in the presence of his Church ; be- 
fore the men and the women, the aged and the young 
whom he had taught, that they might hear the last tes- 
timony which he would give by his words and his death 
to Jesus Christ. And when he learned that it was at 
Carthage, in the midst of his flock, that he was called to 
the martyr's crown, he gave himself up to the procon- 
sul. When the magistrate pronounced his condemna- 
tion to death, he cast a look of hope to heaven, and his 
lips uttered the simple words, " Blessed be God." 

His name was 

ST. CYPRIAN, A.D. 258. 

Before thy head falls from the scaffold under the mur- 
derous sword, tell these who surround thee, O man of 
God ! how they may find the path which leads to the 
eternal mansions to which thou lookest with hope and 
love ! 

He has spoken. He has spoken for all ages. O ye 
nations ! listen to the voice of the martyr. 

* Letter from Origen to his former disciple, Gregory Nazianzen. Philo- 
calia, chap. xiii. (Collection of Origen's writings by St, Gregory and Basil) 



THE VOICE OF THE ANCIENTS. 351 

"God hath said many things through His servants 
the prophets ; # but how much greater are those which 
the Son hath uttered ;f those which the Word of God, 
who inspired the prophets themselves, hath testified 
with His own voice 1 There He commands no longer 
that the path of Him who is to come may be prepared. 
But He comes Himself. He opens and points out the 
road to us ; and we, who, imprudent and blind, were in 
the darkness of death, are enlightened by the light of 
grace, so that we may enter the way of life under the 
Lord's guidance." 

And, again, the martyr says : " Beloved brethren, the 
teachings of the Gospel are God's instructions, the foun- 
dation upon which our faith must be built ; the helm 
which guides us in our voyage ;J the fort which defends 
our salvation. In instructing the obedient souls of be- 
lievers on earth, these teachings will lead them to the 
mansions which are in heaven." 

This is the seventh voice. 

Lord ! make us to understand these words. 

XL 

And the more heads of Christians fell beneath the 
sword, the more arose before the persecutors. The 
blood of the martyrs was the seed of the Church. 

Then Satan, whose spirit animated the princes and 
priests of paganism, inspired them with this new 
thought : " Let us burn," said they, " all the copies of 
the Book ; let us destroy the word of God. Then the 
fountain from which this religion flows will be exhaust- 
ed, Christianity will pass away from the earth, and will 
never reappear." 

* Multa et per prophetas servos suos, &C. 
+ Sed quanto major a sunt quaejilius loquitur. 

X Gubernacula dirigendi itineris. St. Cyprian's works, De Oratione domin- 
ica, in initio, p. 217. 



352 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

Truly this design came from the depths of hell ; but 
Christ was watching in heaven. The priests of Jupi- 
ter and Bacchus called loudly for the Book. The pro- 
consuls caused the houses to be searched. Alas ! alas ! 
there were cowards, who, fearing death, gave the cruel 
priests and satellites the Book of God. But others, 
faithful unto death, defended it ; they asked that their 
lives should be taken rather than the Lord's word. 
The Sacred Scriptures were heaped together on the 
public places and burned. From afar off the believers 
saw the flames arising. They stealthily crept at night 
to the places where the words which God had uttered 
had been burned, and tears stole down their cheeks as 
they found nothing but ashes instead of the oracles of 
the Holy One of Israel. 

It was the priests of the dissolute Jupiter, of the im- 
pure Venus, of the staggering and drunken Bacchus, 
who burned the New Testament in those days. Men 
of the nineteenth century ! who are those who burn it 
in our days? 

Shame ! shame ! shame forever, cried the Christians, 
on those who gave up the Sacred Scriptures to the 
priests. They gave these cowards the name of traiU 
ors* and drove them from their meetings. 

Glory be forever, cry the Heavenly Spirits, to the 
witnesses and defenders of the word ; they are 

THE MARTYRS OF CHRIST. 

" Hast thou the Sacred Scriptures ?" cried the bar- 
barous proconsuls to the martyrs. 
" I have." 

" Where are they ?" 
" In my heart." 
And the defenders of the word of God were burned, 

* Traditores. 



THE VOICE OF THE ANCIENTS. 353 

so that those living tablets upon which the finger of 
God has written His word might be destroyed.* 

This is the eighth voice. 

Lord ! make us to understand these words. 

XII. 

Who is that man who stands like a rock in the bo- 
som of the sea, in the midst of the assembly of bishops, 
who silences those who deny that He who hung upon 
the cross was the true God, and who suffers frequent 
exile for defending the Divinity of his Lord and my 
Lord? 

His name is 

ST. ATHANASIUS, A.D. 325. 

What does he say ? 

He says to Christians whom error has misled : " If 
you wish to say any thing besides what is written,f why 
do you dispute with us? We are determined to say 
and to know nothing save what is in the Scriptures."} 
Then addressing the heathen who were seeking God, he 
said : "The sacred Scriptures, inspired by God, are 
sufficient for the discovery of truth."§ 

This is the ninth voice. 

Lord ! make us to understand these words. 

XIII. 

Who is that man who labors as a bishop among the 
Pictons on the banks of the Vienne, and who, from the 
walls of Poictiers, ravishes Gaul by his piety and his 
profound wisdom ? 

* Deeds of Saturninus, Datdvus, and others, in Africa. See Ruinart, Du 
Pin, &c. 

{• Ei 6e irepa izapa to. yeypa/xueva la2,eiv ftovTieade. 
% St. Athanasius's Works, De Incarnatione Christi. 
§ Ibid, Oratio contra gentes. 

G g 2 



354 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

His name is 

ST. HILARY, A.D. 350. 

And what does he say ? 

He turns to the East, to the city of Constantine, and, 
addressing the man who, seated upon an august throne, 
governs the world, he says: "O emperor! you seek 
faith ; learn that you can find it, not in modern writings, 
but in the books of God."* Then, turning to the Christ- 
ian people to teach them the way of life, he says: " Let 
us read what is written, and let us understand what 
we read, and our faith will be perfect."! 

This is the tenth voice. 

Lord ! make us to understand these words. 

XIV. 

Who is that young man who visits the flourishing 
schools of Athens, Alexandria, Constantinople, and Cses- 
area, and having cultivated ancient sciences, displays 
as a bishop all the treasures of love, and seeks to re- 
establish peace between the divided East and West ? 

His name is 

ST. BASIL, A.D. 370. 

And what does he say ? 

He says : " It is just and necessary that every one 
should learn from the Scriptures, inspired by God,J that 
which is useful in making them grow in piety ; and that 
they should not become accustomed to human tradi- 
tions.'^ And wishing still farther to turn the faithful 
away from the traditions and instructions of men, the 

* Non de novis chartulis, sed de Dei libris. Works of St. Hilary, bishop of 
Poictiers. Ad Constantium Augustum, p. 244. 

| Qua scripta sunt legamus, &c. Ibid., De Trinitate, lib. viii. 

t "E/cccrov tKfiavdavelv e/c rrjg SecmvevoTov ypatyrjc:. 

§ 'Yirep tov firj TTpoaedrjadrjval avdpumLvaig irapadoceciv. Works of 
St. Basil, bishop of Caesarea. Regulae breviores, Responsio 95. 



THE VOICE OF THE ANCIENTS. 355 

holy bishop adds : " To attempt to take any thing away 
from the Scriptures, or to add any thing to them, is to 
fall from the faith, and is a most presumptuous crime."* 

This is the eleventh voice. 

Lord ! make us to understand these words. 

XV. 

Who is that man who stopped an emperor because his 
robe had been stained with blood, who refused to cele- 
brate the Lord's Supper in the presence of the man be- 
fore whom Asia, Africa, and Europe trembled, because 
he had given up his subjects to the fury of his soldiers, 
and who, from the walls of Milan, summons the great 
Theodosius to humble himself before Him who alone is 
great and glorious ? 

His name is 

ST. AMBROSE, A.D. 380. 

And what does he say ? 

He directs the kings and the nations to the source of 
life. " Drink of the two cups of the Old and New Test- 
aments," says he, " for in each of them you will drink 
Christ.f Drink Christ, that you may drink the blood 
by which you have been ransomed. Drink Christ, that 
you may drink His sayings. His sayings are the Old 
and New Testaments. A man drinks the sacred Scrip- 
tures when the sap of the eternal word descends into 
the veins of the soul and the strength of the mind. J For 
man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word 
of God." 

This is the twelfth voice. 

Lord ! make us to understand these words. 

* Works of St. Basil, Sermo defide, p. 224. 

f Utrumque poculum bibe Veteris et Novi Testament!, quia ex utroque Chris- 
tum bibis. 

X Bibitur scriptura divina, et devoratur scriptura divina, cum in venas mentis 
ac vires animi succus verbi descendit ceterni. Works of St. Ambrose, bishop of 
Milan. In Psalm., I. Enarratio, 



356 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

XVI. 

Who is that hermit who sits in the place where the 
Lord was born, bending over the books of God ; around 
whom a great number of disciples gather in the fields 
of Bethlehem to learn from him the meaning of the 
Scriptures, and who, from the city of David, spreads the 
knowledge of the word of God throughout the West ? 

His name is 

ST. JEROME, A.D. 390. 

And wnat does he say ? 

Glancing from his solitude at the children of the world 
living in proud Rome, he writes to Lseta, a Roman lady 
of high rank : " Accustom your daughter early to love 
the Sacred Scriptures more than silk and precious 
stones.* Let her learn from Job's example of patience 
and courage, and, turning to the Gospels, let her always 
hold them in her hands."f Then, addressing those who 
say that the Bible can not be understood by all, the her- 
mit of Bethlehem says : " The apostles have written, 
and our Lord Himself has spoken, in the Gospels, not 
that a few merely, but that all should understand. J Plato 
wrote, but he wrote for a small number, and not for the 
nations. Scarcely three men understand him. But these, 
that is, the princes of the Church and of Christ, have 
written, not for a few, but for all men."§ 

This is the thirteenth voice. 

Lord ! make us to understand these words. 

* Pro gemmis et serico divinos codices amet. 

f Ad Evangelia transeat, nunquam ea positura de manibus. Works of St. 
Jerome, author of the translation of the Scriptures called the Vulgate, used 
in the Roman Catholic Church. Epistola, 107, § 12. 

X Non ut pauci intelligerent, sed ut omnes. 

§ Non scripserunt paucis, sed universo populo. Ibid., Comment. S. Hier- 
onymi in Psalm., 87. 



THE VOICE OF THE ANCIENTS. 357 

XVII. 

A young man, nineteen years of age, escapes from 
the pious instructions of his mother, and Carthage sees 
him enjoying with the heathen all the pleasures and 
vices of that great city. And the pious Monica ex- 
claims in her prayers, " O God ! convert my son !" 

The young Numidian is seduced by the deceitful re- 
ligion of Manes. Then Plato's philosophy takes pos- 
session of his soul, and kindles a devouring flame in his 
heart. And Monica cries in her prayers, " O God ! con- 
vert my son !" 

Soon he gives himself up with passion to the arts of 
rhetoric ; the reputation of Ambrose strikes and attracts 
him. He enters the Christian temples of Milan in search 
of eloquence, and the words of the bishop beat against 
his heart as the mighty waves beat against the sea- 
shore. And Monica, with emotion, repeats in her pray- 
ers, " O God ! convert my son !" 

The son of Monica, full of anguish, ashamed of him- 
self and his errors, one day entered his garden in great 
agitation ; he knelt by a fig-tree ; he wept abundantly, 
and cried unto the Lord out of the depths. And a voice 
as gentle as a child's said to him, " Take and read !" 
He arose ; a Bible lay on a bench near him ; he opened 
it, and his eyes fell on these words : " Put ye on the 
Lord Jesus Christ."* Then peace flowed like a river 
in his soul, and a great light, like the Sun of Righteous- 
ness, enlightened his understanding. He had found the 
Savior. He sat down in the Episcopal See of Hippo ; 
he became the light of the West, and all ages have re- 
garded him as the greatest doctor of the Church. 

His name was 

ST. AUGUSTINE, A.D. 396. 
* Rom., xiii., 14. 



358 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

In his days, all Christians, of both sexes, of every age 
and state, constantly meditated on the law of the Lord. 

What books are those men carrying in the highways 
and villages, in the squares and streets of cities, offering 
them to soldiers and to women, to young and old, to 
great and small ? 

St. Augustine replies, with joy, " These are the Holy 
Scriptures, carried about publicly for sale."f 

Many errors were springing up around. The doc- 
trines of Pelagius, Priscillian, Arius, and the disciples of 
Donatus are mingling in the spiritual world like the light- 
ning on a stormy night. The Bishop of Hippo, firm as 
the planet which borrows its light from the sun, spreads 
a mild and constant light on the earth. 

With what weapon do you resist these false teachers, 
O son of Monica ; and to what authority do you appeal, 
O venerable bishop ? 

He replies, " Who does not know that the canonical 
Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are con- 
tained within certain limits, and that they should be 
preferred to all the posterior letters of bishops ;f so that 
it is impossible to doubt or to question the uprightness 
and truth of that which is written ?J These are cer- 
tainly the books of the Lord, the authority of which 
we all acknowledge, believe, and obey. There let us 
seek the Church, there let us discuss our cause.§ Let 
us reject all arguments derived from any other source 
than the canonical books. I do not want the Holy 
Church to be defended by human documents, but by 
God's oracles."|| 

* Scriptura venalis fertur per publicum. Works of St. Augustine, bishop 
of Hippo. In Psalm., 36. 

f Omnibus posterioribus episcoporum litteris esse praponendum. 

% Works of St. Augustine, bishop of Hippo. Epistola de baptismo contra 
Donatistos, t. ix., p. 98. 

§ Ibi discutiamus causam nostram, || Ibid., De unitate ecclesiae, p. 341. 



THE VOICE OF THE ANCIENTS. 35H 

But tell us, O servant of God, What will those simple 
and peaceful souls, which do not love dispute, learn and 
find in the Holy Scriptures ? 

He replies, " The spirit and object of all the Holy 
Scriptures is the love of Him who is supreme goodness, 
and the love of the beings who are capable of obtaining 
happiness through Him.* The Holy Scripture ought 
first to lead the man who reads it to acknowledge that 
he is a slave to the love of the world, and a stranger to 
that love of God and his neighbor which is prescribed 
in the word of God. The knowledge of the truth then 
vivifies him, and engenders in him humility and a holy 
contrition, instead of proud presumption. Filled with 
deep grief, he is then enabled, by constant prayer, to 
receive into his heart the consolation of God's grace. 
He does not fall into despair, but, on the contrary, he is 
seized with ardent hunger and thirst after righteousness. 
He then flees from the destructive charms of perishing 
things, and is filled with love for that which is eternal."f 

This is the fourteenth voice. 

Lord ! make us to understand these words. 

XVIII. 

Sons of men, read the Book. 

A hermit came down from the mountains near An- 
tioch. He raised his voice in that metropolis of Asia, 
and the ears and hearts of all were ravished by his lan- 
guage. Soon the imperial courts rang with his name, 
and he was called to the patriarchal see of the new 
Rome, the capital of the world, Constantinople, on the 
banks of the Bosphorus. Who, among the children of 
men, ever spake like him ? A nation hung, as it were, 
upon his lips ; the poor were comforted, the great were 

* Works of St. Augustine, bishop of Hippo. De doctrina Christiana, 1. i, 
c. 35. f Ibid. 



860 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

astonished, and the Gospel was borne, by means of his 
efforts, to the barbarous countries of the Gentiles. 

But suddenly a sound like the noise of a tempest was 
heard in the palace of the emperors ; a strong and win- 
tery wind blew from the magnificent dwellings where 
the proud Eudoxia commanded ; it overthrew the pa- 
triarch from his seat, and drove him afar off into a des- 
ert ; and there, in exile, in a barbarous land, near the 
wild path along which the imperial satellites had drag- 
ged the servant of God, he died between two soldiers, 
exclaiming in triumph, " Glory be to God !" 

The nations, enchanted with his eloquence, called him 

ST. CHRYSOSTOM, A.D. 400, 

which means " the golden mouth." 

Oh! if the patriarch of Constantinople could now ad- 
dress the old man at the door of his cottage, the young 
man in the field, the great in their palaces, the man of 
business in the midst of his occupations, his buying and 
his selling, the priest in his study, and the woman in the 
midst of her family ! What would he say to you, O 
rich men of this world ! who have every thing except 
the word of God, unless, perchance, it stands richly 
bound on the shelves of your libraries ? 

Hear what " the golden mouth" spake : " We often 
see dice, but never the Bible, unless among a few ; and 
these are as well off as though they had none, for they 
preserve it in cases, magnificently bound, not for the 
purpose of deriving any useful idea from it, but to dis- 
play their opulence and splendor. It was not to pos- 
sess it in books that the Sacred Scripture was given 
to us, but to engrave it upon our hearts !"* 

What would the Western patriarch say to you, O 

* Works of St. Chrysostom, archbishop of Constantinople. Homil. Jo- 
han., 32. Savil., ii., p. 686. 



THE VOICE OF THE ANCIENTS. 361 

worldly men, who exclaim, " How can we read the 
word of God ? The number of our public and private 
affairs does not leave us time to do so." 

Hear what "the golden mouth" spake: "And is it 
not a grave reproach that you are so absorbed in 
worldly occupations that you have not a leisure mo- 
ment for the most necessary thing ? But we have evi- 
dence that this is a false pretext. This evidence is, 
your social meetings with your friends ; your attendance 
at the theater and other public places, where you some- 
times spend days together."* 

What would the Western patriarch say to you, in- 
habitants of the town and the country, who say, " We 
are poor ; how can we procure a Bible V 9 

Hear what " the golden mouth" spake : " I would ask 
you whether you have not all the tools needed in your 
trade. And is it not very foolish to make poverty a 
pretext, when an acquisition of such immense import- 
ance is concerned, if you do not advance such a pre- 
text in any other case ?"f 

What would the holy patriarch reply to you who 
say, " The study of the Holy Scriptures belongs to 
the clergy — to the priests ; laymen should not attend 
to it!" 

Hear what " the golden mouth" spake : " Let no one 
utter before me such cold and reprehensible words as 
these: 'lama man of the world; I have a wife and 
children ; it is not my business to read the Holy Scrip- 
tures ; that is for those who have renounced the world, 
and lead a solitary life with God.' What sayest thou, 
O man ? Is it not thy business to read the Holy Scrip- 
tures, because thou art disturbed by various cares ? On 

* Works of St. Chrysostom, archbishop of Constantinople. Homil. Jo- 
han., 32. Savil., ii., p. 686. 
f Ibid., Homil, 9, in Johan. 

II H 



362 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS, 

the contrary, it is much more thy business than that of 
those of whom thou speakest.* Far from the battle- 
field, they do not receive many wounds ; but thou, whc* 
art always on the battle-field, art continually wounded, 
and therefore needest many more remedies to heal thee. 
Let us not neglect, therefore, to procure Bibles, lest we 
be mortally wounded. Let us not heap up gold, but let 
us collect Bibles. The very sight of the Bible fills us 
with horror for sin. What will it be when the assidu- 
ous study of it shall have made our soul one of those 
living stones of which the sanctuary of the Deity is 
built ?"f 

What will the holy patriarch reply to you who say r 
" The Bible can not be understood by all. It was writ- 
ten for the priests and for men of great learning. But 
the people, the mechanics, the laborers, can not know 
its meaning." 

Hear what " the golden mouth" spake : " The grace 
of the Holy Spirit caused these books to be written by 
publicans, by sinners, by tent-makers, by shepherds, by 
herdsmen, by unlettered persons, that no one might re- 
sort to this pretext ; that the contents of the Scriptures 
might be understood by all ; that the mechanic, the 
servant, the poor widow, the most ignorant of men, 
might be profited by them. J As the teachers of all ages, 
those holy writers who have been enlightened by the' 
grace of the Holy Spirit have explained every thing in 
«- clear and distinct manner, so that each may under- 

f Tt Aeyetf avdpuTve ; ovk earl gov kpybv ypdipaig npoai^ecv, eTrtid}} 
'-Vji 'aig nepie'kKT] typovricl ; abv plv ovv /laT-^bv kcrw i} eneZvov. 

t Works of St. Chrysostom, In Lazarum Cone, 3. 

% Acu yap tovto t) Trvevjuarog uKOvd^vcre xaplc rs/iuvaq, teal aurjvoTiOLOvq, 
ical noijuevag, nal a'nroluovc (cal aypajiy.aTovq ravrct cvvQtlvai ra {3t,62,ca, 
iva fj.T]delg tu>v Idiur&v elg ravTrjv txv KaraQevyelv T7]V7zpo<baalv, Iva izaclv 
evevvonra tj to. heyo/ieva, iva, nai 6 x^ L 9 0T ^X v Mi k°-i> o/zcer^f, nal 37 XVP& 
yvvT), not 6 iravruv avOpuirav aixadeararbq, nepdavri, &c. 



THE VOICE OF THE ANCIENTS. 363 

stand them, without resorting to any other person. 
1 And I, brethren,' says St. Paul, ' came not with excel- 
lency of speech, or of wisdom.'* Take the Bible in 
thy hand ; read it ; remember carefully what thou hast 
understood ; read over frequently that which seems ob- 
scure ; if, after repeated study, thou dost not yet under- 
stand, ask a more enlightened brother or teacher. And 
should no man teach thee what thou seekest, God will 
explain it to thee in some way or other. Look at the 
eunuch of the queen of the Ethiopians.f He was read- 
ing in his chariot on a journey. There was nobody to 
explain what he was reading. God witnessed his zeal, 
and sent him a teacher. It is true, there is no Philip 
here, but the Holy Spirit which inspired Philip is here."J 

This is the last voice. 

Lord ! make us to understand these words. 

XIX. 

Thus spoke these holy men, who were great servants 
of God on earth, and who are now seated in the king- 
dom of heaven with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Who 
will dare to contradict what they said ? Who will cast 
reproach upon the memory of the confessors of Christ, 
and pollute the ashes of his martyrs? Soldier, who 
standest in arms ready to fight in order that thy people 
may eat the fruits of their labor in peace ; laborer, who 
leavest the fields at the approach of night to return to 
thy cottage ; mechanic, who remainest at home when 
thy fellow- workmen are misled by foolish associates ; 
merchant, before thou goest to thy work ; magistrate, 
before thou performest thy daily duties ; woman, in the 
tranquillity of the domestic sanctuary ; young man, who 
art led to wander by the delusions of the world ; mon- 
arch, who sittest on thy throne : listen, all, to the coun- 
* 1 Cor., ii., 1. t Acts, viii. t Ibid, 



864 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

sels of the holy men of God ; their wise sayings come 
down to you through the lapse of ages. 
O ye nations ! read the word of God ! 

XX. 

" Lord ! if I hear another voice besides Thine or those 
of Thy servants ; if, though Thou didst say unto me, 
when Thou wert here on earth, ' Search the Scriptures? 
other voices tell me, ' Shut them up, throw them aside, 
burn them :' Lord ! what must I do ?" 

And methought I heard sounds arising from the 
leaves of the Holy Book before me, and unite in a 
voice loud as the roar of the ocean, saying, 

" Though an angel from heaven preach any other 
gospel unto you than that which we have received, 
let him be accursed."* 

And I continued, " What, then, wilt Thou say, O 
Lord! to those who are opposed to having Thy people 
read Thy word, who forbid their purchasing it, and 
w T ho require them to give it up if they possess it, or 
command them to cast it into the fire ?" 

And methought I heard sounds arising from the 
leaves of the Holy Book before me, and unite in a voice 
loud as the roar of the ocean, saying, 

" Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! 
for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men i 
for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye 
them that are entering, to go in."f 

XXI. 

There is a certain place, whether it be a city, a vil- 
lage, or a hamlet, I will not say, in a country which I 
will not name. Its inhabitants despised the word of 
God ; they would not read it ; they would not possess 

* Gal., i., 8. t Matt., xxiii., 13. 



THE VOICE OF THE ANCIENTS. 365 

it ; and all the books of God which were found there 
were either taken away, or torn up, or burned. 

And what happened to that place ? 

The people spoke deceitfully ; hatred incited to quar- 
rels ; they ate the bread of wickedness, and drank the 
wine of violence ; the hand of the sluggard made them 
poor ; want came on like an armed man. 

*■ Take thou away from me the voice of thy songs," 
saith the Lord ; " for I will not hear the melody of thy 
viols. But let judgment run down as waters, and right- 
eousness as a mighty stream."* This people are de- 
stroyed for lack of knowledge, and their way leadeth 
unto death. 

There is another place, whether it be a city, a village, 
or a hamlet, I will not say, in a country which I will 
not name. Its young men sought the word of God, the 
full-grown men and the women read it, and the old men 
meditated on it. 

There was a man dressed in black ; his appearance 
was venerable ; there was great mildness in his counte- 
nance ; he was called a priest. He said : " My children, 
take the Book ; read it ; it is God's word ;" and they all 
took and read it. 

And my heart melted w r ith joy when I beheld this. 
For I saw its inhabitants prosper, because the Lord 
blessed their dwellings. Their barns were full, and 
their wine-presses ran down with new wine. Their 
ways were ways of pleasantness, and all their paths 
were peace. The divine word had become a tree of 
life to all who had accepted it, and all who kept it had 
become very happy. 



Why does that being, surrounded by the terrors of 



Amos, v., 23, 24. 

Hh2 



366 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

death, the sobs of a family filled with bitterness and 
mourning, and a glory which is fading away, preserve 
a peace so inexpressible, and seem in triumph to bear 
off the victory over the grave? 

Because he believed the word, which says, " Jesus is 
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the 
world." 

Why is that soul borne in the arms of angels through 
the starry heaven to the bosom of God ? Why does it 
see God face to face, and become like Him ? 

Because it believed the word of God, which says, " Je- 
sus is the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no man 
cometh unto the Father but by Him." 

" Yea," saith the- Spirit, " blessed is the man whose 
delight is in the law of the Lord ; and in His law doth 
he meditate day and night." 

And all the saints and the blessed spirits answer, 
" He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, 
that bringeth forth his fruit in his season : his leaf also 
shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall pros- 
per." 

And all the heavenly spirits said, " Amen." And all 
sang together, " Glory be unto the Father ! glory be 
unto the Son ! glory be unto the Holy Ghost ! who 
was, who is, and who will be one God, blessed forever! 
Amen." 



THE VOICE OP THE CHURCH. 367 



XV. THE VOICE OF THE CHURCH, ONE, UN- 
DER THE SUCCESSIVE FORMS OF CHRIST- 
IANITY. 

A DISCOURSE.* 

*'The Church, scattered over the world, proclaims, teaches, and hands 
down this Faith, as though it had but one mouth. For though there be 
aiany different modes (?f expression in the world, the strength of the truth, 
variously transmitted, is one and the same eternally ; as the sun, that creation 
of God, is one and the same throughout the universe."— Ire n^eus, Adv* 
haereses, lib. i., c. 3. 

Gentlemen, — How vast is the activity, and how va- 
rious are the labors and efforts of men on earth ! Yet 
time levels most of their works ; and even if they at- 
tempt to raise a tower to the skies, their lofty structure 
is overthrown, and mingled, after a few generations* 
with the sands of the desert. 

Nothing but Christianity is durable here below. 
Christianity alone is unchangeable, like its Author. It is 
the rock of ages, against which the waves have ever 
dashed, and will ever dash, without shaking it. 

If any man, therefore, is desirous of giving a charac- 
ter of stability and perpetuity to his labors on earth, he 
must connect them with Christianity. They will re- 
ceive from that eternal religion the imprint of immor- 
tality. 

These truths, gentlemen, are not universally acknowl- 
edged ; and we .find two capital errors among men on 
this point. Some pretend that there is no perpetuity in 
the spirit of Christianity itself. " The Christian doc- 
trine," they say, " is merely a peculiar form of religious 
opinion. This form has succeeded another, and will it- 

* Delivered at the annual meeting of the Theological Seminary in Gene- 
va, on the 1st of May, 1834. 



368 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

self be followed by still another. The religion of the 
Savior," they add, " was a necessary consequence of the 
state in which humanity was in the days of the -Caesars ; 
just as the blossoms and flowers of a tree come forth nat- 
urally in the spring." To this singular error rationalism 
has been obliged to resort ; but it has been strikingly 
refuted by history. No ; Christianity is not merely a 
human apparition. History, that unquestionable wit- 
ness, shows that, far from harmonizing with the various 
tendencies of the human mind at the time when it first 
appeared, it was in direct opposition to them. It was 
not the wisdom of the world that gave it birth ; on the 
contrary, it strove to crush it. Christianity was not the 
child of its own times ; it was at once their enemy and 
their renovator. It was not from the dust of the earth 
that this precious fruit came forth ; and it can not return 
to dust. Heaven committed to the world that unchange- 
able treasure, which successive generations were to 
hand down, uninjured, from hand to hand ; we have 
received it in our day, and will reverently and carefully 
transmit it, in our earthen vessels, to our descendants ; 
and it will remain unchanged among men until heaven 
and earth flee away, and there shall be found no place 
for them. 

But if, on the one hand, we meet with the opinions of 
the levelers of Christianity, we find, on the other, the 
pretensions of an inflexible dogmatism, which would as- 
sign a constantly uniform appearance to Christianity 
throughout the whole existence of the Church. There 
is something in Christianity that never changes : and 
that is its essence ; and there is something in it that 
does change : that is its aspects. It is by neglecting to 
distinguish the appearance from the reality, that many 
have mistaken the unvarying nature of the religion of 
Jesus Christ The appearance of a man changes in the 



THE VOICE OF THE CHURCH. 369 

various stages of his life ; yet he is always the same 
man. 

Like every thing else that enters into the sphere of 
humanity, Christianity was to be invested with a human 
form, from the moment that it came down from heaven. 
The external circumstances of every epoch haVe exert- 
ed a decided influence on the development of Christian 
truths. One form has followed another. These suc- 
cessive forms have not been matters of indifference. 
One may have been preferable to another ; but the 
same essential Truth has always existed in all its past 
forms, and will always exist in the future ones. 

Gentlemen, the work in which we are engaged to-day, 
and which we shall communicate to you, is a very feeble 
and paltry one ; but its glory is, that it relates to the 
eternal work. If we wished to argue in favor of mat- 
ters connected with some aspect of the religion of Jesus 
Christ, we should have no pledge of durability for the 
cause which we would defend. The next revolution 
of human society would send it to its grave, with every 
thing that is merely accidental. But if we keep hold 
of the very essence of Christianity, then the sacred cause 
to which our efforts are devoted will participate in the 
perpetuity of the work of God. We may fail ; and soon, 
going the way of all the living, we shall fail ; our Sem- 
inary may fail ; but the cause to which it is consecrated 
will never fail, either in this city or in the world. In 
the words of an ancient oracle, " To it shall the gather- 
ing of the people be." # 

Yes, gentlemen, this is the foundation of our hopes, 
amid many difficulties and trials. It is this that, by 
God's grace, encourages us. And perhaps it will be 
worth our while to consecrate a few moments to ac- 
quainting you with this characteristic phenomenon of 

* Gen., xlix,,10. 



370 



DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 



the religion of Jesus Christ : The unchangeableness of 
the doctrines of Christianity, in the midst of the diversi- 
ty of its forms ; the Voice of the Church, one and ever 
the same, in all ages. 

If we inquire into the various human forms which the 
unchangeable Truth of God has successively taken in 
different periods of history, we find that they have been 
very numerous. We must collect them, unite them, 
and form them into an extensive whole. We shall thus 
obtain, as a last synthesis, four principal periods or forms. 
The first is the primitive form, or form of life. The 
second is the form of dogma. The third is the form of 
the schools. The fourth is the form of the Reformation. 
The Church of Christ, according to a scriptural compari- 
son, is like one man. It has had its youth, its manhood, 
and its old age ; and then, yet without dying, it has had, 
so to speak, a powerful resurrection. These have been 
the four eras or ages of the Church of Jesus Christ. 

We shall rapidly survey these four forms, so different, 
I may say so opposed in appearance, to see whether we 
will find in each the same unchangeable truth. We 
shall listen to the voices of the teachers. It is true that 
the assertions of a single man will not suffice to acquaint 
us with the belief of the Church ; but if, by consulting 
the writings of men who have lived in various countries 
at a distance from one another, we find, amid great 
variety of views, certain doctrines in which all agree, 
may we not with reason conclude that those doctrines 
were the doctrines of the Church, scattered over the 
whole world ? To what points, then, shall our inquiries 
be directed ? 

The whole of Christianity, as well as the whole of 
religious philosophy, necessarily reverts to three princi- 
pal points. In the first place, it refers to God ; in the 
second place, to man ; and in the third place, to the re- 



THE VOICE OF THE CHURCH. 37! 

fation which exists between God and man, or the means 
by which God unites man to Himself: that is, redemp- 
tion. Let us see, then, what the voice of the Churchy 
in the various periods of Christianity, teaches us respect- 
ing these three points. 

THE VITAL ERA. 

We exclude from the primitive period the days of the 
apostles, which must be considered separately. In our 
opinion, that primitive form begins with the successors 
of the apostles, and extends to the times of Arius. The 
principal characteristic of this period was life. The 
Christian truths were not yet proclaimed with that pre- 
cision and systematic order for which they were after- 
ward distinguished. Men lived for the Savior in the 
midst of an idolatrous world ; they died for the Savior 
in the arena or at the stake ; and this without much dis- 
cussion respecting His person or His work. Christian- 
ity was content to exist, and to know and profess that 
it existed, without enumerating and classifying all the 
essential parts which constituted it ; in the same way 
that man is long satisfied with possessing existence and 
life, without examining or carefully explaining in what 
this existence and this life consist. A few rationalist 
doctors (who have not been undeceived by a certain 
degree of learning which is only too superficial) have 
very strangely concluded, from this characteristic of the 
primitive form, that the Christian truths did not exist at 
that early period, and that there were no dogmas, be- 
cause there was no dogmatism. But to infer, from this 
want of precision in dogmas, that the Christian truths 
did not exist, is a mode of reasoning as singular and as 
false as that of an unskillful controversialist would be, 
if he pretended that the periods of his being of which a 
man can not give a precise and accurate account, never 
had an existence ! 



372 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

The result of this characteristic of the primitive form 
was, that the controversies of that period seldom had 
respect to dogmas. Their tendencies, rather than their 
dogmas, were different. We meet with families pre- 
senting various aspects, rather than sects sustaining op- 
posite doctrines. Let us trace the consequence of these 
various families, before we state the doctrines which the 
voice of the Church then proclaimed. 

The simple Christianity of the apostolic fathers fol- 
lowed the divine inspiration of the apostles. It seems 
that in this case the usual order was inverted, and that 
the ingenuousness and simplicity of childhood succeed- 
ed the power and maturity of the full-grown man. The 
Church, under the guidance of Ignatius, Polycarp, and 
many other faithful disciples, lived under the influence 
of the great idea of the approaching return of Jesus 
Christ. " There are three constitutions or dispensations 
of the Lord," says one of those fathers, Barnabas, who 
inclined to another direction : " the hope of life (the Old 
Testament) ; the commencement of life (the New Testa- 
ment) ; and the consummation of life (the kingdom of 
heaven)." But, by degrees, this heavenward tendency 
seemed to cease in the Church. There arose a gener- 
ation which did not penetrate so deeply into the spirit 
of Jesus Christ. Curious traditions were collected re- 
specting the appearance of Christ on earth. Carnal 
Jews, who expected a human Messiah, preserved their 
gross views under the name of Christians. It seems as 
though the Church, weary of its upward flight, fell back 
to the earth. Let us not wonder at this ; we almost 
always find a period of stupor following a great revival. 

Then there appeared on the borders, and almost be- 
yond the borders of Christianity, a tendency diametri- 
cally opposite. Oriental philosophy was desirous of 
uniting with the religion of Jesus of Nazareth. It de- 



THE VOICE OF THE CHURCH. 373 

prived it of its practical character, and changed it into 
systems which soared among the clouds. Gnosticism 
substituted for the wholesome doctrine a fantastical cos- 
mogony, by means of which it endeavored to explain 
that which is inexplicable, and an enthusiastic theoso- 
phy, which would fain have brought down to man on 
earth the sublime contemplations of heaven. 

The West shrunk back from the adventurous ram- 
bles of the East. Tertullian and Irenseus displayed, in 
opposition to them, in proconsular Africa and in Gaul, a 
simple, positive, and historical Christianity, and present- 
ed to men that faith by which both great and small live. 
Considering philosophy as the source of Gnosticism, 
they began to look with distrust upon the wisdom and 
scientific cultivation of the Greeks. 

But this exclusive simplicity had its dangers also. 
Refined and learned pagans, finding nothing which cor- 
responded with the requirements of their intelligence in 
the Christianity offered to them, remained attached to 
the worship of false gods, or rushed into the adventur- 
ous systems of Gnosticism. Eminent minds were thus 
lost to the Gospel. Alexandria, seated on the banks of 
the Nile, between the East and the West, observed this. 
Alexandria, that great market of the sciences, to which, 
according to tradition, the Evangelist Mark carried the 
simple word of Christ, undertook to become a mediatrix 
between these two tendencies of man and these two 
parts of the known world. Pantenus, Clement, and Or- 
igen founded a Christian science, thereby approaching 
the views of the East, but, at the same time, founding it 
on the Scriptures, and thereby approaching those of the 
West ; yvLdoiq dX^dlvrj — " the true science." Alas ! it 
was not wholly so ; and although those divines did not 
forsake the fundamental principles of Christianity, phi- 
losophy deposited in their systems the treacherous seed 

Ii 



374 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

of the two greatest heresies of the subsequent period, as 
Well as of all other periods. 

The school of Alexandria gradually destroyed and 
supplanted Gnosticism. But, then, it was against it that 
the attacks of the severe and practical school of the 
West were directed. A remarkable struggle took place, 
in the third century, between these two Churches, or, 
rather, schools. These opposite tendencies served to 
counterbalance each other, and contributed powerfully 
to the prosperity of Christianity. Alexandria infused a 
theological spirit into the Church. It began to enlight- 
en and systematize the dogmas. It prevented a gross 
anthropomorphism from invading the heavenly doctrine 
of Jesus Christ. The West always brought men back 
to the simple and literal interpretation of the written 
word. It reminded men that Christianity ought to be 
felt, undergone in the heart, and demonstrated in the 
life. It prevented that positive and wholesome doc- 
trine from changing into vain and fantastical specula- 
tions. 

Such, gentlemen, are the successive phases of the 
primitive form. In the midst of all these phases, a spirit 
of life animated the Church. It was the age of its youth. 
The Christians of the primitive days, delivered from the 
sins of paganism, felt in their hearts the transforming 
strength of the Gospel with the more energy, because 
they could compare what it had made them with what 
they had been till then. Their struggle with the world 
reminded them still more strongly of their vocation as 
soldiers of Jesus Christ. Every body lived for the 
Church ; every body was moving. The Church receiv- 
ed impulses toward heaven, and often toward the scaf- 
fold. And although its golden age was reserved for 
the new heavens and the new earth, yet Christian so- 
ciety presented features of celestial beauty in those days 
of its youth and life. 



THE VOICE OF THE CHURCH. 375 

And what are the truths which were professed by 
the teachers and citizens of this new commonwealth, 
created in the midst of the world by the breath of God ? 

They knew a living God. They worshiped, in God, 
not only the author of all things (the Father), but also 
the Redeemer (the Son), and the Sanctifier of fallen hu- 
manity (the Spirit). They believed that the same God 
who created man in righteousness redeemed him from 
sin, and sanctifies him continually, until he reaches 
eternal life. They knew nothing of those singular er- 
rors, by which some would fain deprive God of the 
work and glory of redemption, to attribute them to a 
creature. 

The idea of a holy Trinity in God is found at the 
very beginning of the primitive era, and is continually 
appearing in a more distinct manner. How the voice 
of those early soldiers of Jesus confounds the imprudent 
pretensions of our times ! 

Clement, a disciple of Paul, ascribing glory to the 
sovereign God, said at Rome, " One God, one Christ, 
one Spirit of grace."* Polycarp, a disciple of John, 
dying at the stake, gave eternal glory to " The Father, 
with the Son, in the Holy Ghost."f 

Justin Martyr, the first of divines, in whom are united 
the Christian faith and the philosophy of the Greeks, a 
converted sage, who, under Antoninus, shed his blood 
for his Master, proclaimed the " Unity in Trinity."J 
Theophilus, a bishop of Antioch, professed the doctrine 
of the Holy Trinity about the same time, and in a still 
more explicit manner. § 

A lawyer in Africa, Tertullian, who became a simple 

* "Eva Qebv, Kal eva Xpcarbv, Kal Iva Ilvev/ia rrjg xaptrog.— Clem. Rom. 
1 Cor. 

t At ov, gvv avrcj, kv TLvsv/iaTi ayiu d6£a— Eus., H. E., iv., 15. 

t Movag h rptddL voelrai, rp. kv fiov. yvopifrTat. — Justin, Expositio 
fidci. § Theoph., Aut. Autol., ii., 23. 



376 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

pastor of the flock of Jesus Christ, exclaimed, shortly- 
after, " There is only one Divine Being, in three per- 
sons intimately united."* He preached " The Trinity 
of one only Divinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."f 
And elsewhere he said, " Let us preserve the sacrament 
of our dispensation, which establishes the Unity in Trini- 
ty, acknowledging three : the Father, the Son, and the 
Holy Spirit, of one substance, one state, one power, be- 
cause there is one only God."J 

And with what energy did Irenssus, who had been 
compelled to leave the sacred shores of Asia to carry 
light into Gaul, and was the venerable bishop of a neigh- 
boring city (Lyons), which was then distracted by the 
fury of the people against Jesus Christ, and is now dis- 
tracted by other attacks :§ with what energy, I say, 
did Irenseus defend the great doctrine of " God mani- 
fest in the flesh ?" " Christ," he says, " unites in Himself 
both God and man. If the man had not overcome 
man's great enemy (the devil), that enemy would not 
have been really overcome. But if, on the other hand, 
God had not brought us to salvation, we would not cer- 
tainly possess it."|| 

Though but a few years had elapsed since the death of 
the oldest apostle, we find so many illustrious teachers 
preaching this doctrine of the Father, Son, and Holy 
Spirit, of which Christ has established a perpetual mon- 
ument in His Universal Church by the institution of 
baptism. The greatest doctors zealously defended the 
consoling doctrine of God becoming man. The farther 

* Una substantia in tribus cohcerentibus. — Tertul. 

| Trinitas unius Divinitatis, Pater, et Filius, et Spiritus Sanctus. — De pud., ii. 

X Unitatem in trinitatem, . . . Patrem, et Filium, et Spiritum Sanctum, . . . 
unius autem substantias, et unius status, et unius potestatis, quia unus Deus, 
— Tert., Adv. Praxeam. 

§ The author here refers to the political tumults which took place in Ly- 
ons in the year 1834. — Trans. 

|| "Hvoaev rov avdpuTtov rw Qt&.~=° Iren,, Adv. Hosreses, lib, iii., c. 20. 



THE VOICE OF THE CHURCH. 377 

we advance, the more numerous are the testimonies 
given to this mystery in the churches of the Lord. 
Every where we find the eternal, divinity of the Son of 
God deeply stamped upon the inmost convictions and 
the worship of the Christian people. And even one of 
the wisest of the heathen wrote to the greatest of their 
emperors, " They sing hymns to Christ as God."* 

But if we inquire what these Christians of the Era of 
Life believed respecting man, we will not find that they, 
like the ancient heathen, and like many modern teach- 
ers, imagined that sin proceeded from man's natural 
organization, and that it is not in opposition with the 
holiness of God. This was their doctrine : The first 
man, having, by his disobedience, separated his will 
from the divine will, human nature has been abandoned 
to itself. Being thus separated from God, it fell under 
the dominion of sin. 

Let us approach the college of the apostles, and ques- 
tion those who surrounded and followed them. Barna- 
bas, Paul's companion,f tells us : " Before we believed 
in God, our hearts were the abodes of corruption and 
sin ; our hearts were full of idolatry ; they were the 
habitation of demons."J Justin, who had in vain sought 
a key to man's history in all systems of philosophy, 

* Quod essent soliti statuto die ante lucem convenire, carmenque Christo, 
quasi Deo, dicere secum invicem. — Plin., Epist. ad Traj., x., 96. 
f Acts, xiii. 

% Upb OV 7J/J.O.Q TTLGTEVCaL TG) 0£(j5, 7]V 7JfiC0V TO KCLTOlKCLTripLOV T'fjg Kdp- 

6tag (pdapTOV nal aadeveg, &c. — Barnabas, c. 16. (Some doctors have ex. 
pressed doubts respecting the authenticity of the letter of Barnabas. Their 
motives, it seems to me, are weak. Several Rationalists, even — Bretschnei- 
der particularly — think it authentic. I name Bretschneider, because he is 
of great authority among Rationalists and Unitarians. We do not, however, 
suppose that the testimony of this divine, distinguished in some respects, is 
of much weight in ecclesiastical history. For instance, he places Tertulliart 
after Origen, making him live at the end of the third and the beginning of 
the fourth century, which is one century more than is necessary. See Bret- 
Schneider's Grundl. des Ev. Piet., p. 342.) 

I T 2 



378 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

found one at last in the fall of Adam, which was brought 
about by the temptations of the devil, disguised under 
the form of a serpent.* 

The first man, according to the simple and practical 
Irenasus, was like a " prisoner," whose race was perpet- 
uated in prison. The profound Tertullian calls the cor- 
ruption of human nature " original sin" (vitium originis). 
" The first man," he says, " infected the human race 
which proceeded from him, and made it participate in 
his condemnation."! Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, that 
great light of the Church, had the same idea respecting 
the origin of sin. " The new-born child," he says, " is 
in no wise sinful, save because he is carnally born of 
Adam, and, by his birth, has received the contagion of 
death."J 

And if we are invited to resort to the school of Alex- 
andria, hoping that those philosophical theologians will 
pronounce words flattering to our pride, we will lead 
you there, and you shall hear Origen say : " Adam turn- 
ed away from the straight path of Paradise to enter the 
evil road of mortal life. Consequently, all his descend- 
ants, having come into the world, have turned away, 
and have, like him, become useless. § Every man is 
corrupt in his parents. Jesus alone entered into the 
world pure.|| It is impossible for man, at the beginning 
of his life, to look to God ; for it is necessary that he 
should first undergo sin."H 

* Dial, cum Tryph., p. 306. 

f Totum genus de suo semine infectum sum etiam damnationis traducem fecit. 
— Tertul., de Testim. An. 

X Infans recens natus nihil peccavit, nisi quod, secundum Adam, carnaliter na- 
tus, contagionem mortis antiques prima nativitate contraxit. — Cyprian, Epist. lxiv., 
ad Fid. 

§ Omnes .... declinaverunt, et simul cum ipso inutile s facti sunt. — Origen, 
Comm. in Epist. ad Rom., lib. iii. 

|| Omnis ergo homo in patre et in matre pollutus est, &c. — Origen, Horn, xii., 
Z7i Levit. 

IF KaKiav yap vipioradai avaynaZov rrpurov kv avdpuiroic;. — Origen, 
contra Celsum, lib, iii., 62. 



THE VOICE OP THE CHURCH. 379 

Thus, Egypt as well as Gaul, proconsular Africa as 
well as Asia, acknowledged that man was a fallen and 
sinful being. 

And how was this polluted being to be reconciled to 
a holy God ? What was the belief of that primitive 
age respecting the means by which God saved man? 
Let us again inquire of those who surrounded the apos- 
tles. They will teach us those sacred doctrines of 
grace which were afterward more fully developed. 
" The Son of God suffered," says the apostolic Barna- 
bas, " that His sufferings might give life to us. He of- 
fered up the vase of His Spirit (his body) a sacrifice for 
our sins." " Having learned to hope in the name of the 
Lord, and having received the remission of sins, we 
have become new men, and have been created anew" 
(vii., 16). Hermas, who was, perhaps, the same of 
whom St. Paul speaks,* says, " Before man has receiv- 
ed the name of a son of God, he is destined to die ; but 
when he has received that seal, he is delivered from 
death and passes into life."f 

" The law of God," says Justin, " pronounced a curse 
on man, because he could not fulfill it in its whole ex- 
tent. J Christ has delivered us from that curse, by bear- 
ing it for u-s."§ Do we speak differently in these days ? 

Irenseus saw in circumcision a type of the saving 
blood of Christ, and in the tree of life a type of the 
Cross of Christ. Elsewhere he declares that men ought 
no longer to strive to purify themselves with sacrifices, 
but with the blood of Christ and by His death. The 
lamb of the Passover was with him an emblem of 
Christ, who saves believers by the sprinkling of His 
blood. The two goats, one of whom, according to the 

* Rom., xvi., 14. 

f Liberatur a morte, et traditur vitce. — Hermas pastor, lib. iii. 

X Deut., xxvii., 26. $ Dial, cum Tryph., c. 30. 



380 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

law of Moses, was to be driven into the desert, and the 
other sacrificed to God, are emblems of the first and 
second coming of Christ ; the first of which was to die, 
and the second to be glorified.* He opposed the obe- 
dience of Christ to the disobedience of Adam. " Christ," 
he says, " reconciled us with the Father, by atoning, by 
His perfect obedience, for the disobedience of the first 
man." And, pursuing his metaphor of man cast into 
prison and in the bondage of Satan, he declares that 
" Christ, by His sufferings, paid the necessary ransom 
to deliver man from that captivity." 

Origen, likewise, viewed, in the death of Christ, the 
power which delivers man from sin. The whole prim- 
itive Church looked upon the sufferings of the Lamb of 
God as the means which opened to humanity the road 
which leads it back to the Father. It is faith that 
makes man participate in that deliverance, and, at the 
same time, communicates divine life. " Called by the 
will of God," says Clement of Rome, a disciple of the 
apostles, whose name, we are told by Paul, is in the 
Book of Life,j" " we are justified, not by ourselves, or by 
our wisdom, or understanding, or piety, or by any 
works we may have done in the holiness of our hearts, 
but ' by faith/ through which the sovereign God has 
justified men at all times. Shall we be idle on that ac- 
count, and cease to do good? On the contrary, we 
ought to do good joyfully, as God, who hath called us 
to Himself, acts without ceasing, and rejoices in His 
activity."J 

Such was this holy Church of the primitive era. 
Thus it speaks, in the midst of its anguish, and, as it 

* Dial, cum Tryph., passim. f Phil, iv., 3. . 

% Ov 6t' eavrtiv Swacovfieda, ovde dta Tfjg rjfierepag cutylag, rj cvveae- 
uc, rj svaeSuac, r) epyuv tiv Kareipyaau/ieda kv oolottjti tcapdcag. 'AA/ld 
did, Tijg 7vcareuc, &c— Clem., Rom., 1 Cor., c. 32. 



THE VOICE OF THE CHURCH. 381 

were, from the stake itself. It confesses its own vile- 
ness, and, throwing itself at the feet of Jesus, calls Him 
" its Lord and its God." How can we mistake the loud 
and truthful voice of its sincere piety ? And how lam- 
entable is the occupation of certain doctors in our day, 
who endeavor to despoil it of its white robe, to dress it 
in the filthy rags of their own infidelity ! This profane 
enterprise is, it is true, a mark of homage which they 
pay to it. Indeed, the very first Unitarians resorted to 
the same expedient. But these efforts will be useless ; 
and the primitive Church will ever address those who 
listen to them in the unchanging tones of truth. 

THE DOCTRINAL ERA. 

Though we have been able to glean only a few ears 
in the great harvest before us, yet we have been more 
diffuse, with regard to the primitive period, than befits 
the limits of this discourse. We have done so, because 
this is the only ground upon which the enemies of Christ- 
ian Truth venture and hope for some success from their 
skillfulness. They despair of all other periods, or rather, 
they make the loud, common, and public professions of 
faith which they find there, and which are so contrary to 
their views, the subject of bitter reproaches and accusa- 
tions. We shall not make great efforts to be victorious 
in a battle-field in which our adversaries already con- 
fess that they are overcome, and forsake us. 

Let us look at the opening of that period of great 
teachers, great truths, and great heresies ; that era in 
which Christian Theology, the elements of which had 
been prepared in the preceding period, is carried, by il- 
lustrious men of God, to a great height ; that day of 
Athanasius, Hilary, Gregory, Basil, Ambrose, Jerome, 
Augustine, and Chrysostom. Those were the times of 
strong men ; it was the manhood of the Church. The 



382 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS* 

flames of the last stakes of the confessors of Christ are 
extinguished ; the memorable Council of Nice meets. 
The era of life is ended ; that of dogma begins. God 
forbid that we should assert that there was no longer 
any life in the Church ; but dogma was the ruling char- 
acteristic. Man is fond of distinct ideas ; he likes to 
account for what he believes. Is was so at that time. 
The Church, having no longer to struggle with its per- 
secutors externally, could attend more thoroughly to in- 
ternal matters : to the faith which it professed. The 
various tendencies of the primitive form became more 
decided, and, by a remarkable transformation, were 
changed into negative doctrines ; just as the vague in- 
clinations of the youth become more and more decided, 
and, in manhood, are changed into distinct traits of 
character, into positive vices or virtues. Great heresies 
appeared, conducted by Arius or Pelagius. But these 
very heresies became the means which God used to es- 
tablish the Christian dogmas with still greater clearness 
and force. The Christian truths, thus laid down by the 
Church of that day, were faithfully transmitted to the 
succeeding periods. They were perpetuated, in spite 
of the disturbances and the barbarity which existed in 
the following centuries. This dogmatic form became, 
through divine grace, the armor which surrounded those 
doctrines in the midst of great struggles and revolu- 
tions ; it was the hammer that beat them into the dull 
and gross minds of the barbarians. Yet we must ac- 
knowledge, such importance was ascribed to dogmas, 
even in their smallest ramifications, that the very es- 
sence and life of Christianity were sometimes forgotten 
in view of forms of doctrine. 

The East and the West preserved their peculiar 
characteristics. The East remained the land of pro- 
found speculations; the West, that of practical questions. 



THE VOICE OF THE CHURCH. 383 

The East discussed about God ; the West, about man. 
In the East we see Arius and Athanasius ; in the West, 
Pelagius and Augustine. But in the East and in the 
West, the Truth, violently attacked, carried off brilliant 
and complete victories. Having passed through the 
time of its youth, the Christian doctrine was, like the 
first man, to undergo trial ; but it was not, like him, to 
fall. It resisted temptation and remained firm. 

The doctrine of God was first exposed, in that era, 
with majestic glory, because it was the first that was 
threatened by man's presuming hand. A great teacher, 
Athanasius of Alexandria, viewed in the profound mys- 
tery of redemption the necessity for the eternal divinity 
of the Redeemer. The world can have no Savior, un- 
less that Savior be God. In consecrating his life to the 
defense of the identity of substance between the Father 
and the Son, and in submitting to so many exiles, 
Athenasius did not attach great importance to a mere 
dialectic subtlety ; it was for the very essence of Christ- 
ianity and the salvation of souls that he fought. The 
object of Christianity is to restore communication be- 
tween man and God. To do this, it was necessary to 
have a mediator. " But if the Son of God," says Atha- 
nasius, " is in His essence different from the essence of 
God, He needs another mediation to unite Him to God. 
None but a being who needs no mediation to unite Him 
to God, but who Himself partakes of the divine essence, 
can establish a real communication between God and 
man. Such a being is the Son of God. If He were a 
creature, even the holiest of creatures, He would, by 
interposing between God and man, have separated in- 
stead of uniting them."* 

But let us listen to the entire Church in the symbols 
of its faith. " The Catholic Faith," it says, " is this : 
That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in 

* Athan., Oratio contra Arian. 



384 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

Unity; neither confounding the Persons nor dividing 
the Substance. For there is one Person of the Father, 
another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. 
But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the 
Holy Ghost is all one : the Glory equal, the Majesty 
coeternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and 
such is the Holy Ghost. The Father uncreate, the Son 
uncreate, and the Holy Ghost uncreate. The Father 
is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God. 
And yet there are not three Gods, but one God." " For 
the right Faith is, that we believe and confess that our 
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man ; 
God, of the Substance of the Father, begotten before 
the worlds ; and Man, of the substance of His mother, 
born in the world ; perfect God and perfect Man ; equal 
to the Father, as touching His Godhead, and inferior to 
the Father, as touching His Manhood."* 

A struggle of more than sixty years (from 320 to 
381) was necessary, to decide, explain, and defend the 
doctrine of Christ's divinity. New struggles began for 
the purpose of deciding another dogma. Soon after 
Athanasius and the other theologians who followed in 
his footsteps, we see in the Church a teacher who seem- 
ed to have received from God the mission of explaining 
and defending the doctrine of the Scriptures respecting 
man ; a teacher no less remarkable for his profound in- 
tellect than for his ardent piety. It was Augustine. 
Already had several doctors demonstrated by their 
profession the unchangeableness of the Christian doc- 
trine. " In Adam's sin alone," says Hilary of Poictiers, 
" all mankind have sinned."f 

ut unum Deum in trinitate et trinitatem in imitate veneremur : neque 

confundentes personas, neque substantiam separantes, &C. — Creed called Atha- 
nasian. (This oecumenical creed was composed by a Latin writer posterior 
to Athanasius.) 

f In unius Adami errore omne genus humanum aberravit. — Hilar., in Matth., 
c. 18. 



THE VOICE OF THE CHURCH. 

" We have all sinned in the first man," says Ambrose 
of Milan ; " in him human nature sinneaY't But it was 
when the great doctor of the West, under whose influence 
all those were educated, for centuries, who have clear 
views of the Truth : it was when Augustine appeared 
that the depths of human impotency were revealed. 

He first forsook Manicheism, and then Platonism, 
finding in neither of them that internal peace which he 
needed in the storms of life. He firmly laid hold of the 
Gospel, which dissipated his doubts, consoled his heart, 
and spread new light on all his ways. In the midst of 
his struggles with sin and philosophy, he learned to 
know the corruption of the human heart by that of his 
own ; and that was the string that vibrated in all his 
instructions. Pursued, at the same time, by a sublime 
idea of holiness, and all the allurements of lust, he saw, 
in the concussion of these conflicting elements, the depths 
of his heart opening before him, as the tempests of ocean 
reveal the profound abyss. He found himself in the 
presence of a man who, without any definite plan or 
object, and in circumstances of no extraordinary na- 
ture, took but a superficial view of human nature, and 
indulged in fantastic notions of the moral ability of man. 
Augustine entered upon a conflict with Pelagius ; and 
this conflict was not one between men merely, but be- 
tween two principles, two great tendencies of the mind 
of man, which are met with in every age. Augustine 
saw that the first man had wandered away from God ; 
from that estrangement proceeded sin ; from that sin 
proceeded the moral disorder which has invaded human 
nature. To him, the human race appeared to be " a 
heap of ruin."f The consequence, as well as the pun- 
ishment of the fall of the first man, was to his descends 

* Apol. Davidis, c. 2. t Massa perditionis. — Pecc. or., 21. 

Kk 



386 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

ants " an obligation to sin."* Man had lost his liberty 
as well as the ability to do any really good thing.f He 
could no longer possess any thing which God had not 
given him. If some men attained the faith of the Gos- 
pel while others did not attain it, the reason is not to be 
found in man, since both are alike incapable of doing 
right. That reason can be found only in the particular 
action of God, in a secret counsel of the Divine Being, 
in an election by grace. J After a struggle of more than 
thirty years in Africa, Italy, and the south of Gaul, 
truth triumphed, and the doctrine of man's total impo- 
tency remained in the Church. 

Then, gentlemen (and this leads us to the third point 
we are to examine), the doctrine of grace was clearly 
exposed by these doctors. Already had the excellent 
Hilary said : " Redemption is given gratuitously, not on 
account of the merits of works, but by the free will of 
the Giver, according to the election of the Redeemer."^ 
" In this," says Augustine, " consists the grace of God 
through Jesus Christ. He justifies us, not through our 
righteousness, but through His own."|| But he insists 
especially on the idea that grace excludes all merit, all 
natural disposition of man to receive salvation. God is 
the Alpha of salvation, as well as the Omega ; the be- 
ginning as well as the end. " What God began by op- 
erating," says he, " He finished by co-operating. In 
commencing the work, He operates to the end that we 
may be willing; and to conclude the work, He co-op- 
erates with those who now possess the will."^ He that 
glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. 

Thus, in this period of dogma, Christian science made 

* Obligatio peccati.—C. D., xiv., 1. t Prsedest, S. S., 3. 

t Quaest. ad Simpl. 

§ Hilary, in Psalm. || De Gratia Dei, 52. Sua, non nostra justicid, &c. 
if Cooperando perficit quod operando incipit. Ipse ut velimus operatur incipi 
ens, qui volentibus cooperatur perficiens . — Aug., De Gratia et Lib. Arb., § 33. 



THE VOICE OF THE CHURCH. 387 

great progress. The doctrines of God, of man, and of 
salvation, which the doctors of the first period had seen 
in the Scriptures, were sounded more thoroughly, and 
explained more perfectly by those of the second. The- 
ology advanced under the influence of the Spirit of 
God ; for, gentlemen, there is a progressive march in 
theology. What will those answer, who, in our days, 
would fain lead us to forsake those advanced degrees of 
sacred science, not merely to make us return to the 
primitive elements, but receive sad errors which the 
Church long since refuted and rejected ? " Leaving the 
principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto 
perfection, not laying again the foundation."* 

THE SCHOLASTIC ERA. 

A new era followed that which had taken the place 
of the primitive. After times of darkness, we see, in 
the middle of the eleventh century, a great intellectual 
movement taking place in the West. It is from this 
movement that scholasticism arose. The school {scold) 
endeavored to separate from the Church, which, till 
then, had ruled alone. It wished to obtain authority 
and influence independent of the hierarchy. Free men, 
who, in the beginning, at least, were usually neither 
monks nor ecclesiastics, sought to form free schools 
distinct from those which had existed till then. Soon 
the University of Paris, that mother of scholasticism, is- 
sued from these schools. The spirit of the schools (we 
might now say the spirit of the university or of science) 
became the general characteristic of scholasticism. Its 
tendency was, to apply philosophy to Christianity ; to 
reduce the Christian doctrines to systems ; to show 
their connection, their interna] proofs ; to gain for them 
not only the heart, but the understanding also. So that 

* Heb., vi., i. 



388 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

if the first period was that of life, and the second that 
of dogma, the third can be regarded as that of system. 
There is still life among many ; there are still dogmas 
among all ; but system is the principal feature. It was 
then that every doctor published his system, his Sum- 
mary of Theology* It was the old age of the Church, 
which naturally succeeded the first two eras of youth 
and manhood. In truth, old age loves to systematize 
the truths which it has already collected. It meditates. 
It has but little power of impulse, and more of reflection. 
And although there were many strong men in that era 
of middle age, yet the tendency to systematize was its 
ruling characteristic. 

At that time, historical studies were insignificant. 
Exegetical studies were of but little more importance. 
And yet intelligence was strongly aroused amid the 
European nations which had so long been slumbering. 
A guide was necessary to lead it. That guide was di- 
alectics. And as theology was the science of that age, 
it became the field into which the human mind ventured 
under the auspices of its reasoning guide. This tend- 
ency of scholasticism might have led to Rationalism 
and infidelity ; but its first teachers sheltered sacred 
theology from these attacks. " The Christian," says 
Anselm, the father of scholasticism, " should attain 
knowledge by means of faith, not faith by means of 
knowledge. I do not seek to understand for the pur- 
pose of believing, but I believe for the purpose of un- 
derstanding. And even I believe, because, if I did not 
believe, I would not understand. "f Soon Abelard and 
his school took possession of the principle of scholasti- 
cism, and became the defenders of free inquiry. They 

* Summa Theologice, by Alexander of Hales (Venice, 1576) ; by Albert the 
Great (Basle, 1507) ; by Thomas Aquinas (Paris, 1675), &c, &c. 

f Neque enim qucero intelligere ut credam, sed credo ut intelligam, &C. — An- 
selmi Epist., xli. Prologion, c. i. 



THE VOICE OF THE CHURCH. 389 

wanted to understand first, and then to believe. Faith, 
said they, when strengthened by examination, is much 
more solid. The enemies of the Gospel must be at- 
tacked on their own ground. If we must not discuss, 
then we must believe every thing, falsehood as well as 
truth.* Yet, notwithstanding this tendency, and the 
condemnation of the Church, these Rationalist theolo- 
gians can not be reproached with abandoning any doc- 
trine of the faith. 

We will not wholly absolve scholasticism. It fre- 
quently disfigured Christian truth. Its tendency, and 
the state in which the Church was then, made this a 
necessary result. Human reason never presumes to 
touch any of those great truths which surpass all com- 
prehension, without stumbling. The school of the Mid- 
dle Ages, like that at Alexandria, weakened the doctrines, 
in attempting to strengthen the Christian system. Nev- 
ertheless, scholasticism produced great minds. Though 
it may surprise some, I do not hesitate to say that there 
was some progress made under its influence, not in 
Christianity, but in science, in theology. The doctors 
who were the light of those ages communicated many 
salutary instructions to the crowds that filled their 
schools, and followed them, when it was necessary, by 
thousands into the deserts, where they erected a pulpit 
for instruction. 

In the opinion of the greatest infidels among men of 
the world, orthodox Christianity was an invention of 
the Middle Ages. This trival accusation of the wise men 
of the eighteenth century is certainly very honorable to 
the Middle Ages ; more so, I think, than they deserve ; 
and it might, at least, exempt us from the necessity of 

* Si enim cum persuadetur aliud, ut credatur, nee est ratione discutiendum, 
quid restat nisi ut ceque tarn falsa quam vera pr&dicantibus acquiescamus ? — AbeL ? 
Intro, ad Theo., c. 3. 

Kk 2 



390 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

proving that the Christian doctrine existed then. Let 
us, however, question some of those doctors. 

We will see what exposition of the doctrine of sal- 
vation is made by Anselm of Canterbury, that power- 
ful man, who united the labors of philosophy with the 
purity of faith ; who was perhaps the most influential 
of the philosophical theologians of those days, and the 
second Augustine of the Latin Church. By him the 
Bible system of redemption was developed and brought 
forward in such a manner as to anticipate all objection, 
and satisfy at once the understanding and the heart. 
" All reasonable beings," says he, " ought to submit 
their wills to the divine will. This law was transgressed 
by the first man's sin. Thus the harmony of moral 
order was destroyed in the world. The law of eternal 
justice requires, either that the human race should be 
punished, or that, by an atonement proceeding from 
humanity, order should be re-established. Otherwise it 
would not be in harmony with the moral order of the 
universe that vile man should be restored to the com- 
munion of happy spirits. Man could not accomplish 
that atonement of himself As by one being human na- 
ture had been corrupted, so by one being the atonement 
was to be effected. But he who was to effect this must 
have had something to give that is above all creation. 
He must have been God Himself. And, at the same 
time, He must have been man, to make His atonement 
applicable to man. This being could, therefore, be none 
other than the God-Man. This God-Man voluntarily 
gave Himself up to death ; for He was not subjected 
to death. He exercised the most perfect obedience in 
the midst of the greatest sufferings. God owed Christ 
a reward. But since Christ, as God, amply sufficed 
for Himself, He needed no reward. Therefore Christ 
could transfer His merits to the world, and ask as a re- 



THE VOICE OF THE CHURCH, 391 

ward the salvation of believers." Thus wrote Anselm 
in his work entitled, Why did God become Man ?* 

But what is remarkable, considering their ordinary 
reputation, the scholastics insisted particularly on the 
sanctifying influence of faith. " The sufferings of 
Christ," says Peter Lombard, that illustrious Master of 
Sentences, who ruled the schools for centuries, " deliv- 
er us from sin ; for that immense sacrifice of divine 
charity kindles love to God within us, and that love 
sanctifies us."f " The just man, who lives by faith," 
says Robert Pulleyn, " is already sanctified internally ; 
and he receives good works as a token of his faith and 
righteousness. Faith produces first the righteousness 
of the heart, and that produces works."J " Man, in his 
original state," says Alexander of Hales, the irrefraga- 
ble doctor, "■ did not oppose God. Therefore he only 
needed a forming grace. But now he has something in 
him that is in opposition with God, and which can be 
taken away by God's power only. Now, therefore, 
man needs a transforming grace."§ 

It is true that there were differences and controver- 
sies between the scholastic doctors ; but those very 
controversies prove that they were grounded on the 
common foundation of the great truths of salvation. 
For instance, Anselm, Thomas Aquinas (the angelic 
doctor), and others, believed that Christ's sacrifice ef- 
fected man's redemption by virtue of an intrinsic qual- 
ity (ex insito valore) ; whereas other scholastics, and 
Duns Scotus in particular (the subtile doctor), maintain- 
ed that that redemption was only a consequence of the 
counsel, the design of God, who had attached the re- 
demption of man to that price. In these things they 
differed ; but all said, " Man, who was lost, is saved by 
the death of the God-Man." 

* Anselm, Cur Deus homo ? lib. ii. t Sententiarum, lib. iv. 

% Sentent., lib. viii. § Gratia reformans. Summa, &0. 



392 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

Such is the testimony given for centuries by the 
Church and the school, without speaking of numerous 
witnesses to the truth, such as Wickliffe, Waldo, and 
others, who were the forerunners of the great move- 
ment which was about to take place in the world. The 
Church had gone through its youth, full of life ; its man- 
hood, full of strength and clearness ; its systematic and 
reasoning old age ; but after the days of scholasticism, 
even its reasoning passed away. The hierarchy wish- 
ed to embrace all in its chains : life, dogma, and sys- 
tems ; and to place a tombstone over all the noble ten- 
dencies of the Church. It wished to reign alone. Vain 
wish ! The Church in its strength burst these bonds of 
death asunder ; the stone was rolled away ; the sepul- 
chre opened, and it came forth like a man brought back 
to life. And here, gentlemen, we salute the fourth era, 
the fourth form : the form of the Reformation. 

If the three successive forms which we have review- 
ed have seemed to possess characteristics, such as life, 
dogma, and system, what is the characteristic of this ? 

Gentlemen, a reformation is a return to old forms. 
But this reformation was not effected at the expense of 
any one of the preceding forms. The Reformation 
re-established and reunited the three successive forms 
which had till then been isolated in the Church of God, 
and formed a wonderful combination, 

Yes, gentlemen, this is the characteristic of the fourth 
era. The Reformation took the form of system, and 
added to it that of dogma, then it joined these two unit- 
ed forms to that of life. Or, rather, it inverted this 
order : it began with life, proceeded to dogma, and 
crowned the whole with the form of system. The Ref- 
ormation united the wisdom of the three preceding 
forms. 



THE VOICE OF THE CHURCH. 393 

It began with life. Luther felt in his heart, through 
divine grace, the living influence of Christianity as per- 
haps no doctor of the Church had ever felt it before. 
The Reformation came forth living from the Reformer's 
heart, where God had placed it. The era which was 
under the exclusive influence of the Wittemberg doctor 
was, we may say, an era full of life. This is so true, 
that Melanchthon, the theologian of the Reformation, in 
the admirable work which he published at that time 
(we allude to the first edition of his Loci Communes), 
omits the doctrines of the nature of God and of the Trin- 
ity, not because they seemed unimportant to him, for, 
on the contrary, they formed the basis of his system, 
but because, he says, it is better to adore than to sound 
these mysteries. 

But, at the same time, beneath this life you will find 
the strongly-constituted members of the Christian dog- 
ma ; and soon, in the second period of the Reformation 
(that which begins with the Augsburg Confession, com- 
posed by Melanchthon himself), these doctrines stand 
forth and appear in all their power : the Trinity, man's 
entire corruption, and especially the doctrine of grace, 
justification by faith — these are exposed with a clearness 
and profoundness which were scarcely equaled in the 
era of dogma. And already you discover the system 
in the harmonious distribution of these various members 
of the body of the Christian doctrine. But the system 
was formed, especially in the third era of the Reforma- 
tion, under the influence of two great theologians, Me- 
lanchthon in Germany, and Calvin at Geneva. The 
Christian Institutions of our Reformer will ever remain 
one of the finest monuments of the Christian system. 

How loud were the voices which, in that era, pro- 
claimed the immovable truths of the Gospel ! Listen to 
the doctor of Wittemberg, the great Luther, respecting 



394 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

the divinity of Jesus Christ. " If Christ remaineth not 
the true and essential God, begotten of the Father from 
all eternity, and the Creator of all creatures, then we 
are lost ; for of what avail are the sufferings and death 
of Jesus Christ to us, if he was but a man like you and 
me ? Then He can not have overcome the devil, sin, 
and death. We need a Savior who was really God, 
above all sin, above death, hell, and the devil. What 
though the Arians exclaim, ' Christ was the noblest, 
the most sublime of all creatures.' They want by this 
means to disguise their shameful error, so that the peo- 
ple may not discern it. But if the faith is injured, even 
in the slightest degree, we are undone. If they take 
away Christ's divinity from Him, we have no deliver- 
ance from the anger and condemnation of God."* 

And what does the Reformation say with regard to 
man ? It dashes to pieces the various subtle distinctions 
of scholasticism, and exposes, with admirable clearness 
and simplicity, the real doctrine respecting man. Even 
before he published his famous theses on indulgences, 
Luther had published several on man ; and these are a 
few of those truths which that great doctor declared 
himself ready to defend in the Church at the very dawn 
of the glorious day of the Reformation. 

" It is true that man, who has become a worthless 
tree, can not but do and desire what is evil." 

" There is nothing on man's side to anticipate grace, 
save impotency, and even rebellion." 

" There is no moral virtue that is without pride and 
misery, that is to say, without sin." 

" He who is without God's grace sins constantly, even 
if he does not kill, steal, nor commit adultery." 

Shall we speak, gentlemen, of the homage which the 

* Luther, Interpretation of the First Chapter of the Gospel according to St. 
John, t. ix. 



THE VOICE OF THE CHURCH. 395 

Reformation pays to the doctrine of grace ? It was by 
that doctrine that it overthrew all the bulwarks of Rome. 
The Reformation was not willing that man should put 
his confidence and rest his salvation in any thing per- 
formed by him or in him. Christ is the only foundation, 
and faith in His name is the only means of grace. Ev- 
ery other doctrine can only lead to pride or despair. 

Listen to Luther, writing to his friend Spenlein : "Art 
thou w r eary at last of thine own unrighteousness ? Dost 
thou rejoice and trust in Christ's righteousness ? Learn, 
my dear brother, to know Christ and Him crucified ; 
learn to despair of thyself, and to sing this hymn unto 
the Lord : * Lord Jesus ! thou art my righteousness ; 
and I am Thy sin. Thou hast taken what was mine ; 
Thou hast given me what was Thine. Thou didst be- 
come what thou wert not, to make me what I was not.'"* 
" Works are not taken into consideration," he says again, 
" when justification is concerned. True faith will no 
more fail of producing them than the sun will fail of shin- 
ing ; but it is not works that induce God to justify us."f 

"Without doubt," says Melanchthon, "the renewal 
of the heart must follow faith ; but, if justification be re- 
ferred to, turn thine eyes away from that renewal, and 
gaze only upon the promises, and upon Christ, knowing 
that we are justified only for the love of Christ, and not 
on account of our renewal. Faith justifies us, not, as 
thou hast written, because it is the root of the good tree 
in us, but because it lays hold of Jesus Christ, for the 
love of whom we are made acceptable." J 

" We offer nothing to God," says Calvin ; " but we 
are anticipated by His pure grace, without any regard 
to our works."§ 

All the Reformers, however they may differ on some 

* Luther, Epist., t. i. t Luth. ad Melanchthon, opp, 

t Melanch. ad Brentium, opp. i) Calvin, in Epist. ad Titum, 



396 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS, 

points, agree on this. In Germany, Switzerland, France, 
Great Britain, Holland, Italy, and even Spain, they pro- 
claimed justification by faith, and said, " If this article 
remains, the Church remains. If this article falls, the 
Church falls." 

But is it necessary to insist on this subject ? Have 
we not in our hands the confessions of their faith ? And 
do not the adversaries as well as the friends of that 
faith agree in acknowledging that this was the doctrine 
of the Reformation ? 



Gentlemen, a fifth period, a fifth form is now begin- 
ning in the Church ; a form mysterious and unknown, 
the characteristics of w 7 hich it is not yet given us to 
discern. But there is one thing which the history of 
past forms teaches us. The same fundamental truths 
will constitute the essence and the glory of the future 
form. That salutary doctrine which we have found 
every where will not forsake the helm of the Church. 
It will not give up this precious ship to the perfidious 
but ephemeral wind of the heresies of a Theodotus, an 
Arius, a Pelagius, or a Socinius. That which has been 
will be. 

Besides, gentlemen, the history of past forms is to us 
a pledge that the future form will unite all that was 
good in those which no longer exist. God does not 
suffer any thing to be lost in His Church or for it. And 
this leads us to touch upon an error of some pious 
Christians, whose intentions are good, but who are con- 
stantly speaking of returning to the primitive form, car- 
ing but little for all that lies on their road thither. The 
Church can no more avoid the influence of the success- 
ive forms through which it has passed, than a tree can 
rid itself of the layers with which every spring has 



THE VOICE OF THE CHURCH, 397 

clothed it, or than the full-grown man can cast off the 
growth of many years. As for ourselves, gentlemen, 
let us not turn away our eyes from the future ; but let 
us not reject the past either ; the past will be in the fu- 
ture. Life, dogma, system, all will be found united in 
the new form. 

But still, will there not be something to characterize 
it, and thus to distinguish it from the form of the Refor- 
mation ? Certainly there will ; but that characteristic 
is yet to appear, and who shall say what it will be ? 
Nevertheless, I will venture to speak. Will not that 
characteristic of the new form be a universal activity 
in carrying to every race of men and to every individ- 
ual that which the preceding forms have produced ? 
Did not 4.he period of the Reformation unite all the iso- 
lated blessings of the first three, so that the new era 
might take hold of those blessings and spread them 
throughout humanity? Should not life, dogma, and 
system, or, to speak more properly, Christian science, 
become the property of our race, as they have not been 
heretofore ? I will be silent on these subjects, which 
are still covered with a thick veil. 

But there is one thing which we ought to know. 
Gentlemen, we are entering upon a new period and 
form both as to Christian science and the Church ; and 
this generation will be God's instrument to give its first 
impulse to this era. In this there is a vast work to do, 
and there are but very few laborers. My voice will, 
at least, be heard now by you, whose ears it can reach. 
Prepare yourselves for this emergency, O scribes and 
teachers, who are destined, under God's hand, to open 
the new path of science and piety ! Learn that to over- 
come strong unbelief you need strong faith and knowl- 
edge. Enrich yourselves with the past to make ready 
for the future. Young men, who are called to serve 

Ll 



398 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

the churches of Him who has given His life for His 
sheep, or who are already appointed over the Lord's 
flock, you should fully understand what sound theology 
requires of you. Profit by the lessons of history. Let 
them lead you to go beyond the narrow sphere to 
which prejudices may perhaps have restricted you. Let 
them bring you out of the low path in which none but 
servile spirits can creep. Live, not merely in the pass- 
ing moment, but in the by-gone ages. History calls 
them up ; they surround you ; they give you their 
weighty testimony. Will you reject the faith of the 
whole Church for that of one isolated doctor ? Will 
you, despising the glory which comes from God, seek 
that of the world ? Continue that wonderful chain, of 
which the Lord is the first link, and which comes down 
to you, formed of the great doctors of Christendom in 
all its periods. Do not stand aside in the service of 
some obscure heresy. Were you alone among your 
fellow- disciples or your colleagues, alone in your 
church, or alone in the world, in confessing God mani- 
fest in the flesh, you should console yourselves with the 
thought that you are with all those illustrious witnesses 
of so many various forms and eras, whose voices have 
echoed to-day. History shows us that Christianity has 
not ceased, throughout all ages, to act powerfully upon 
the thoughts and the lives of men ; but it also shows us 
that it has always been by means of the same doctrines 
that this regenerating influence has been exerted. The 
orthodox doctrines of Christianity have alone the power 
to renovate individuals and nations. Other doctrines 
serve only to amuse or to ruin souls. You will never 
find life where truth is not to be found. Do you wish 
to follow the career of a rhetorician, to divert people 
by sonorous sentences ? Or do you wish to become a 
benefactor of man, to save him by the wisdom of God ? 



THE VOICE OF THE CHURCH. 399 

Cling to that which is sound, immovable, and eternal. 
Go forward like a sacred cohort ! Let many and pow- 
erful efforts be made in Switzerland, in France, in Ger- 
many, in Holland, in Great Britain, in America, to raise 
sound theology in the world, and to establish the throne 
of truth. 

And do Thou, O most holy God ! by that light which 
alone can make us see, enlighten us, and open to us the 
gates of that knowledge, all the vast treasures of which 
are hidden in Jesus Christ ! 



400 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 



XVI. FAMILY WORSHIP. 

A DISCOURSE.* 
" As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." — Joshua, xxiv., 15. 

" Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my 
last end be like his !"f We have said, my brethren, on 
a former occasion, that if we would die his death, we 
must live his life. It is true that there are cases in 
which the Lord shows His mercy and His glory to men 
who are already lying on the death-bed, and says to 
them, as to the thief on the cross, " To-day shalt thou 
be with me in paradise."J The Lord still gives the 
Church similar examples from time to time, for the pur- 
pose of displaying His sovereign power, by which, when 
He is pleased to do so, He can break the hardest hearts 
and convert the souls most estranged, to show that all 
depends on His grace, and that He hath mercy on whom 
He will have mercy. Yet these are but rare excep- 
tions, on which you can not rely absolutely ; and if you 
wish, my dear hearers, to die the Christian's death, you 
must live the Christian's life ; your heart must be truly 
converted to the Lord, truly prepared for the kingdom, 
and, trusting only in the mercy of Christ, desirous of 
going to dwell with Him. Now, my brethren, there 
are various means by which you can be made ready, in 
life, to obtain, at a future day, a blessed end. It is on 
one of the most efficacious of these means that we wish 
to dwell to-day. This means is Family Worship ; that 
is, the daily edification which the members of a Christ- 
ian family may mutually enjoy. " As for me and my 

* Published at Paris in 1827 ; it was preached, however, at Brussels. 
~ t Numbers, xxiii., 10. % Luke, xxiii., 43. 



FAMILY WORSHIP. 401 

house," said Joshua to Israel, " we will serve the Lord." 
We wish, my brethren, to give you the motives which 
should induce us to make this resolution of Joshua, and 
the directions necessary to fulfill it. 

MOTIVES. 

Family worship is the most ancient as well as the 
holiest of institutions. It is not an innovation against 
which people are readily prejudiced ; it began with the 
world itself. 

It is evident that the first worship which the first man 
and his children paid to God could be nothing else than 
Family Worship, since they constituted the only family 
which then existed on the earth. " Then," says the 
Scripture, " began men to call upon the name of the 
Lord."* Family Worship must indeed have been for 
a long time the only form of worship addressed to God in 
common ; for as the earth still remained to be peopled, 
the head of every family went to live separately ; and, 
as a high-priest unto God in the place which was allot- 
ted to him, he offered unto the Lord of the whole earth 
the homage due to Him, with his wife, his sons and 
daughters, his man-servants and maid-servants. It 
was only by degrees that, when the number of men 
was greatly multiplied, various families happened to set- 
tle near each other ; then came the idea of adoring God 
in common, and Public Worship began. But Family 
Worship had become too precious to the families of the 
children of God to give it up ; and, if they began to 
worship God with the families of strangers, how much 
more was it their duty to worship Him with their own 
families ! Thus, if, leaving the cradle of the human 
race, we go to the tents of the patriarchs, we again 
meet with this Family Worship. Let us go with the 

* Gen., iv., 26. 

Ll2 



402 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

angels to the plains of Mamre, when Abraham is seated 
at the door of his tent in the heat of the day ; let us go 
in with him, and we will find that the patriarch, with 
all his household, worshiped the Lord together. " I 
know him," said the Lord concerning the father of the 
faithful, " that he will command his children and his 
household after him, and they shall keep the way of the 
Lord, to do justice and judgment.'"* Public Worship 
was instituted by Moses; he gave numerous ordinances; 
a magnificent temple was to be erected. Will not 
Family Worship be abolished ? No ; by the side of 
that temple in ail its magnificence, the lowliest house 
of a believer is to contain the word of God. " These 
words which I command thee this day," said the Lord 
by Moses, " shall be in thine heart ; and thou shalt teach 
them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them 
when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest 
by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou 
risest up."f Joshua, in our text, declares to the people 
that they may worship idols if they choose, but that he 
will not join their profane festivities ; and that, alone, in his 
dwelling, he and his house will serve the Lord. Job 
" rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings 
according to the number of his children; for he said, It 
may be that my sons have sinned !"J David, whose 
whole life was one continual adoration of God, and to 
whom one day spent in the courts of the Lord was bet- 
ter than a thousand in the tents of wickedness, did not 
neglect the family altar; for he exclaimed, " That which 
our fathers have told us, we will not hide from their 
children."^ If we pass on to the times in which our 
Savior appeared, we find domestic instruction practised 
in the pious families of Israel. Thus St. Paul could 

* Gen., xviii., 19. | Deut., vi., 6, 7. 

X Job. i, 5. 4 Psalm lxzviii 



FAMILY WORSHir. 403 

say to Timothy, " From a child thou hast known the 
Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto 
salvation. I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith 
that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grand-mother 
Lois, and thy mother Eunice ; and I am persuaded that 
in thee also."* Jesus, during His ministry, laid the 
foundations of Family Worship among Christians, when 
He said," Where two or three are gathered together in 
my name, there am I in the midst of them."f St. Paul 
recommended it, saying, " Rule well your own houses ; 
speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spirit- 
ual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to 
the Lord ; giving thanks always for all things unto God 
and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ/'J 
Yes, my brethren, if we enter the humble dwellings of 
those primitive Christians, after having visited the tents 
of the patriarchs, we shall still find the same Family 
Worship offered up unto the Lord ; we shall hear afar 
off those hymns, which may perhaps betray the presence 
of the disciples of the Crucified to their persecutors, and 
cause their destruction, but which joyfully arise to the 
throne of their Savior, because it is better to fear Him 
than to fear men ; we shall see them assembled around 
the Sacred Book, which they afterward conceal with 
care, to preserve it from the hands of those who would 
fain destroy it. 

Clement of Alexandria, an illustrious doctor of the 
Church, near the beginning of the third century, advis- 
ed Christian husbands and wives to make it a daily 
practice to pray and read the Bible together in the 
morning, and he added, "The mother is the glory of 
the children, and the wife is the glory of the husband ; 
all are the glory of the wife, and God is the glory of 

* 2 Tim., iii., 15 ; i., 5. t Matt., xviii., 20. 

t 1 Tim., iii., 4. Eph., v., 19, 20. 



404 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

them all." Tertullian, shortly before, gave this admi- 
rable description of the domestic life of a Christian coup- 
le : " What a union is that which exists between two 
believers, who have in common the same hope, the 
same desire, the same mode of living, the same service 
of the Lord ; like brother and sister, united both in spirit 
and in flesh, they kneel down together ; they pray and 
fast together ; they teach, exhort, and support each oth- 
er with gentleness ; they go together to the house of 
God, to the table of the Lord ; they share one another's 
troubles, persecutions, and pleasures ; they conceal noth- 
ing from each other ; they do not avoid one another ; 
they visit the sick and succor the needy ; the singing 
of psalms and hymns is heard among them ; they rival 
each other in singing with the heart to their God. 
Christ is pleased to see and hear these things ; He 
sends down His peace upon them. Where two or 
three are thus met, He is with them ; and where He is, 
the Evil One can not come." 

If we leave the humble dwellings of the primitive 
Christians, it is true that we shall find the practice of 
Family Worship become less and less frequent ; but how 
gloriously it reappears at the epoch of the Reformation ! 
How great an influence it exerted then upon the creed, 
the manners, and the intellectual development of all the 
nations which returned to primitive Christianity ! It is 
not very long since it was still to be found in all evan- 
gelical families. If our fathers were deprived of its 
light, our forefathers were acquainted with it. It flour- 
ished especially in the evangelical provinces of this 
kingdom ;* and many precious remains can still, we 
trust, be found here. 

My brethren, such has been, in all times, the life of 

* The Netherlands. This discourse was delivered previous to the sepa- 
ration of Belgium and Holland in 18S0. 



FAMILY WORSHIP. 405 

piety. And will we be Christians, or will we not? 
Shall we invent a new mode of piety which will har- 
monize with the world, or shall we hold fast to that 
which God has commanded us to possess ? Shall we 
not say, in looking at that worship which passed from 
the tents of the patriarchs to the houses of the primitive 
Christians, and was finally established in the dwellings 
of our fathers, " As for me and my house, we will serve 
the Lord?" 

But, my brethren, if the love of God be in your 
hearts, and if you feel that, being bought with a price, 
you ought to glorify God in your bodies and spirits which 
are His, where do you love to glorify Him rather than 
in your families and in your houses? You love to 
unite with your brethren in worshiping Him publicly 
in the church ; you love to pour out your souls before 
Him in your closets. Is it only in the presence of that 
being with whom God has connected you for life, and 
before your children, that you can not think of God ? 
Is it, then, only, that you have no blessings to ascribe ? 
Is it, then, only, that you have no mercies and protection 
to implore ? You can speak of every thing when with 
them ; your conversation is upon a thousand different 
matters ; but your tongue and your heart can not find 
room for one word about God ! You will not look up 
as a family to Him who is the true Father of your fam- 
ily ; you will not converse with your wife and your 
children about that Being who will one day, perhaps, 
be the only husband of your wife, the only father of 
your children ! It is the Gospel* that has formed do- 
mestic society ; it did not exist before it; it does not 
exist without it ; it would, therefore, seem to be the duty 
of that society, full of gratitude to the God of the Gos- 

* It is obvious that the Author here uses the word Gospel as synonymous 
with Christianity, and in the sense of true religion. 

G g 2 



406 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

pel, to be peculiarly consecrated to it ; and yet, my 
brethren, how many couples, how many families there 
are, nominally Christian, and who even have some re- 
spect for religion, where God is never named ! How 
many cases there are in which immortal souls that 
have been united have never asked one another who 
united them, and what their future destiny and objects 
are to be ! How often it happens that, while they en- 
deavor to assist each other in every thing else, they do 
not even think of assisting each other in searching for 
the one thing needful, in conversing, in reading, in pray- 
ing, with reference to their eternal interests I Christian 
spouses ! is it in the flesh, and for time alone, that you 
are to be united ? Is it not in the spirit, and for eter- 
nity also ? Are you beings who have met by accident, 
whom another accident, death, is soon to separate? 
Do you not wish to be united by God, in God, and for 
God ? Religion would unite your souls by immortal 
ties ! But do not reject them ; draw them, on the con- 
trary, tighter every day, by worshiping together under 
the domestic roof. Voyagers on the same vessel con- 
verse of the place to which they are going ; and will 
not you, fellow-travelers to an eternal world, speak to- 
gether of that world, of the route which leads to it, of 
your fears and your hopes ? " Many walk thus," says 
St. Paul, " of whom I have told you often, and now tell 
you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the 
Cross of Christ ;" but " our conversation is in heaven, 
from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus 
Christ."* 

But if it be your duty to be engaged with reference 
to God in your houses for your own sakes, ought you 
not to be so engaged for the sakes of those of your 
households whose souls have been committed to your 

* Phil., iii., 18, 20. 



FAMILY WORSHIP. 407 

care, and especially for your children ? You are great- 
ly concerned for their prosperity, for their temporal 
happiness ; but does not this concern make your neglect 
of their eternal prosperity and happiness still more pal- 
pable ? Your children are young trees intrusted to you; 
your house is the nursery where they ought to grow, 
and you are the gardeners. But oh ! will you plant 
those tender and precious saplings in a sterile and sandy 
soil ? Yet this is what you are doing, if there be noth- 
ing in your house to make them grow in the knowledge 
and love of their God and Savior. Are you not pre- 
paring for them a favorable soil, from which they can de- 
rive sap and life 1 What will become of your children 
in the midst of all the temptations that will surround 
them and draw them into sin ? What will become of 
them in these troublous times, in which it is so necessa- 
ry to strengthen the soul of the young man by the fear 
of God, and thus to give that fragile bark the ballast 
needed for lanching it upon the vast ocean. 

Parents ! if your children do not meet with a spirit 
of piety in your houses, if, on the contrary, your pride 
consists in surrounding them with external gifts, intro- 
ducing them into worldly society, indulging all their 
whims, letting them follow their own course, you will 
see them grow vain, proud, idle, disobedient, impudent, 
and extravagant ! They will treat you with contempt; 
and the more your hearts are wrapped up in them, the 
less they will think of you. This is seen but too often 
to be the case ; but ask yourselves if you are not re- 
sponsible for their bad habits and practices ; and your 
conscience will reply that you are ; that you are now 
eating the bread of bitterness which you have prepared 
for yourself. May you learn thereby how great has 
been your sin against God in neglecting the means 
which were in your power for influencing their hearts ; 



408 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

and may others take warning from your misfortune, and 
bring up their children in the Lord ! Nothing is more 
effectual in doing this than an example of domestic 
piety. Public worship is often too vague and general 
for children, and does not sufficiently interest them ; as 
to the worship of the closet, they do not yet understand 
it. A lesson learned by rote, if unaccompanied by any 
thing else, may lead them to look upon religion as a 
study, like those of foreign languages or history. Here 
as every where, and more than elsewhere, example is 
more effectual than precept. They are not merely to 
be taught out of some elementary book that they must 
love God, but you must show them that God is loved. 
If they observe that no worship is paid to that God of 
whom they hear, the very best instruction will prove 
useless ; but by means of Family Worship, these young 
plants will grow " like a tree planted by the rivers of 
water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season : his 
leaf also shall not wither."* Your children may leave 
the parental roof, but they will remember in foreign 
lands the prayers of the parental roof, and those prayers 
will protect them. " If any," says the Scripture, " have 
children or nephews, let them learn first to show piety 
at home. But if any provide not for his own, and espe- 
cially for those of his own house, he hath denied the 
faith, and is worse than an infidel."f 

And what delight, what peace, what real happiness a 
Christian family will find in erecting a family altar in 
their midst, and in uniting to offer up sacrifice unto the 
Lord ! Such is the occupation of angels in heaven ; and 
blessed are those who anticipate those pure and immor- 
tal joys ! " Behold, how good and pleasant it is for 
brethren to dwell together in unity ! It is like the pre- 
cious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the 

* Psalm i., 3. t 1 Tim., v., 4, 8. 



FAMILY WORSHIP. 409 

beard, even Aaron's beard ; that went down to the skirts 
of his garments ; as the dew of Hermon, and as the dew 
that descended upon the mountains of Zion ; for there 
the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for ever- 
more."* O, what new grace and life piety gives to a 
family ! In a house where God is forgotten, there is 
rudeness, ill-humor, and vexation of spirit. Without the 
knowledge and the love of God, a family is but a col- 
lection of individuals who may have more or less natu- 
ral affection for one another ; but the real bond, the love 
of God our Father in Jesus Christ our Lord, is wanting. 
The poets are full of beautiful descriptions of domestic 
life ; but, alas ! how different the pictures often are from 
the reality ! Sometimes there is a want of confidence 
in the Providence of God ; sometimes there is love of 
riches ; at others, a difference of character ; at others, 
an opposition of principles. O, how many troubles, 
how many cares there are in the bosoms of families ! 

Domestic piety will prevent all these evils ; it will 
give perfect confidence in that God who gives food to 
the birds of the air ; it will give true love toward those 
with whom we have to live ; not an exacting, sensitive 
love, but a merciful love, which excuses and forgives, 
like that of God Himself; not a proud love, but an hum- 
ble love, accompanied by a sense of one's own faults 
and weakness ; not a fickle love, but a love unchangeable 
as eternal charity. " The voice of rejoicing and salva- 
tion is in the tabernacle of the righteous."! 

And when the hour of trial comes, that hour which 
must come sooner or later, and which sometimes visits 
the homes of men more than once, what consolation 
will domestic piety afford ! Where do trials occur, if 
not in the bosoms of families ? Where, then, ought the 
remedy for trials to be administered, if not in the bosoms 
* Psalm cxxxiii. t Psalm cxviii., 15. 

M M 



410 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

of families ? How much a family where there is mourn- 
ing is to be pitied, if it has not that consolation \ The 
various members of whom it is composed increase ono 
another's sadness. But if, on the contrary, that family 
loves God, if it is in the habit of meeting to invoke tho 
holy name of God, from whom comes every trial, as 
well as every good gift ; then how will the souls that 
are cast down be raised up I The members of the family 
who still remain meet around the table on which is laid 
the Book of God, that book where they find the words 
of resurrection, life, and immortality, where they find 
sure pledges of the happiness of the being who is no 
more among them, as well as the warrant of their own 
hopes. The Lord is pleased to send down the Com-' 
forter to them ; the Spirit of glory and of God rests 
upon them ; an ineffable balm is poured upon their 
wounds, and gives them much consolation;: peace is 
communicated from one heart to another. They en- 
joy moments of celestial bliss. " Though I walk through 
the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil ;, 
for Thou art with me ; Thy rod and Thy staff they 
comfort me."* " O Lord, Thou hast brought up my 
soul from the grave ! Thine anger endureth but a mo- 
ment : in Thy favor is life ; weeping may endure for a 
night, but joy cometh in the morning."*)" 

And who can tell, my brethren, what an influence 
domestic piety might exert over society itself? What 
encouragements all men would have in doing their duty, 
from the statesman down to the poorest mechanic ! 
How would all become accustomed to act with respect 
not only to the opinions of men, but also to the judgment 
of God ! How would each learn to be satisfied with the 
position in which he is placed ! Good habits would be 
adopted ; the powerful voice of conscience would be 

Psalm xxiii., 4, t Psalm xxx., 3, 5. 



FAMILY WORSHIP. 411 

strengthened ; prudence, propriety, talent, social virtues, 
would be developed with renewed vigor. This is what 
we might expect both for ourselves and for society. 
"Godliness hath promise of the life that now is, and of 
that which is to come."* 

DIRECTIONS. 

If you wish to profit by all the blessings of Family 
Worship, what are you to do ? What measures are 
you to follow ? We have still, my brethren, to give you 
a few. 

And first, so far as it is in your power, let not these 
exercises of domestic piety be wanting in spirituality, 
truth, and life ; let them not consist merely in reading 
certain passages, and repeating certain forms of prayer, 
in which the heart is not concerned. It would, perhaps, 
be better to have no Family Worship rather than such 
as this. These dead forms are still to be found in some 
families. But at the present day, when the Church is 
every where struggling to rise out of its ruins, and when 
the wind of which Ezekiel spoke is breathing every 
where upon the dry bones to impart life unto them, we 
must return to Family Worship and revive it, not in a 
state of languor and death, but in a state of life and 
strength. How shall we attain this object ? Let us 
perform the exercises of family piety, not merely as 
though it were a good work which we ought to accom- 
plish, for then we might fall either into the error which 
we have just pointed out, or into pride ; but let us per- 
form them rather like miserable beings who want rich- 
es ; as famished creatures, who want food to nourish 
that which is most noble in them. Do it as a duty, if 
you choose ; but do it rather on account of your own 
wants. The little child knows how to ask for a piece 

* 1 Tim., iv., 8. 



412 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

of bread, or even for its mother's milk; and do not we 
know how to go to God and ask of Him His pure and 
spiritual milk ? " Blessed are they which do hunger 
and thirst after righteousness : for they shall be filled."* 

We will give you another rule, my brethren : do not 
adhere too exclusively, too servilely to any one particu- 
lar form. First establish such a service in accordance 
with your own wants and those of your family; let there 
be entire liberty; let it be conducted one day in one 
manner, and the next in another, if you choose ; let it 
be prolonged at one time and abridged at another. 
Perhaps it were better that this exercise should not, at 
first, embrace all the members of your household, but 
should have a smaller and more intimate sphere ; this 
will make it more easy and edifying. Follow these va- 
rious suggestions ; the great matter is, that God be not 
forgotten under your roof. " Stand fast, therefore, in 
the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be 
not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."f 

But how are these moments consecrated unto God to 
be occupied ? 

In the first place, the word of God should, of course, 
be read, and sometimes, perhaps, other Christian books. 
In how many families that admirable book, that Book of 
the nations, has been in all ages, and is still the most 
precious of treasures ! In how many dwellings has the 
Bible diffused righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy 
Ghost, and submission to all authorities appointed by 
God ! The various books which compose the Bible are 
almost all of a different nature from one another ; it 
were difficult to have a greater variety in one volume, 
though the same Spirit of God is in each. This circum- 
stance makes it remarkably appropriate for the nourish- 
ment of families ; and hence so many poor and obscure 

* Matt., v., 6. % Gal., v., i. 



FAMILY WORSHIP. 413 

families in Protestant countries, possessing that Book, 
do without any others, and by it are brought to the ac- 
quisition, not only of eternal life, but of a remarkable in- 
tellectual development. The child, the old man, the 
woman, and the full-grown man alike find something 
to interest them there, and to lead them to God. There is 
something for every situation in life. What abundant 
consolation have all troubled and afflicted, but faithful 
souls, derived always from the Psalms of the Royal 
Prophet ! It is well to read throughout some book of 
the Scriptures, but it is not necessary to follow the order 
in which the different books are placed in the Sacred 
Volume. On the contrary, it is, perhaps, best to turn 
from the New Testament to the Old, and from the Old 
to the New ; from one of the Prophets to one of the 
Epistles of the Apostles, and then to one of the histori- 
cal books of the Old Testament. It is desirable that the 
person who reads should make some remarks on the 
passage read. You know how to speak about any oth- 
er book that you read ; is it only here that thoughts and 
words are wanting ? Do you find nothing there that is 
applicable to the state of your heart, to the situation of 
your family, to the character of some one of your chil- 
dren ? Read that book always, not as a history of past 
times, but as a book written for you, addressed to you 
now ; you will readily find circumstances and occasions 
which render it suitable. Nevertheless, if nothing has 
been given to you, be content with asking the Holy 
Spirit to impart to every heart the fruits which He has 
promised for His word. " As the rain cometh down, 
and the snow, from heaven, and returneth not thither, 
but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and 
bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to 
the eater : so shall My word be that goeth forth out of 
My mouth ; it shall not return unto Me void ; but it shall 
Mm2 



414 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in 
the thing whereunto I sent it."* 

Another act of worship is, prayer in common, or to- 
gether. It is true that there are good written prayers ; 
but can you not pray to God aloud yourself? You 
know very well how to speak to a friend; why should 
you not know how to speak to God ? Is He not your 
greatest and most intimate friend ? How easy it is to 
approach Him when it is in the name of Christ crucified 
that we come ! " Thou art near, O Lord," says David. f 
" While they are yet speaking," God has said, " I will 
hear."J If you can pray in secret, can you not pray 
aloud ? Do not be so anxious about what you shall say ; 
" Prayer requires more of the heart than the tongue, more 
faith than reasoning." How can it be otherwise than 
salutary, when, for instance, a father or a mother prays 
aloud for the children who are present, and enters into 
detail respecting their sins before God, asking Him to 
give His help and His grace. And how often a family 
is in a situation in which it is called upon to offer up 
prayer unto God, for deliverance, for assistance, for 
consolation ! " Ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when 
ye shall search for Me with all your heart," saith the 
Lord.§ 

A third act of worship which ought, if possible, to 
form part of domestic devotion, is singing. In these 
days man has associated singing with his occupations, 
and especially with his pleasures ; but to praise God 
was certainly its primitive object. It is to this that the 
Royal Prophet consecrated it, and shall not we do like- 
wise ? If so many profane things are sung in some 
houses, why should we not sing to the honor of the God 
who has created and redeemed us ? Still more, if sa- 

* Isa., lv., 10, 11. t Psalm cxix., 151. 

X Isa., lxv., 24. § Jer., xxix., 13. 



FAMILY WORSHIP.. 415 

©red hymns are sometimes sung for the sake of the beau- 
ty of the sound, shall they not be sung with humility 
and fervor to celebrate the Lord ? " Admonish one 
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, sing- 
ing with grace in your hearts to the 'Lord."* 

But some will perhaps say, At what time ought we 
thus to think of God and approach Him together? I 
answer, whenever you choose, at the most convenient 
hour, when you will be least disturbed in your other 
business. This is generally in the evening; perhaps it 
were better, on account of the fatigue of the day, that 
it should be in the morning ; and best of all, both morn- 
ing and evening. When you have eaten your morning 
meal, or even while you are eating it, could you not 
spend that time which is usually spent either in saying 
nothing or in talking of trifles, in reading a few words 
which would raise your thoughts to God, or in hearing 
them read f I am about to begin the day by the first 
function of the animal being ; but wilt not thou, O my 
spiritual and immortal soul, do any thing or receive any 
thing now? I am about to feed my body with that which 
God has created ; but do thou, O my soul, awake and 
receive thy food from the Creator ! O God ! Thou art 
my portion forever !f O God ! Thou art my God ; ear- 
ly will I seek Thee !t What a blessing, my brethren,, 
will such 3. beginning bring down upon the whole day, 
and what a happy disposition of mind it will give you ! 

And to you, Christian parents, let the evening of the 
Lord's day, that season when the children of irreligious 
parents run to places of dissipation, be peculiarly pre- 
cious and sacred. Instruct your household in the way 
of the Lord, and your instructions at that time will be 
particularly blessed, provided your children see that 
you are really in earnest in the work which you are 
performing. 

* Col., Hi,, 16, f Psalm lxxiil, 26, J Psalm Ixiii., 1. 



416 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

To all this, my brethren, add the essential thing : a 
life in accordance with the sacredness of the worship 
which you offer unto God. Be not one man before the 
altar of God and another in the world, but be truly one 
man at all times. Let your behavior throughout the 
day be a living commentary upon what you have read, 
heard, or said in the hour of devotion. " Be ye doers 
of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own 
selves ;* for the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomina- 
tion to the Lord ; but He loveth him that followeth 
after righteousness."! 



Such is Family Worship. We would remind you, my 
dear hearers, of all the motives which ought to hasten 
its establishment in your families, and we entreat you, 
and particularly those of you who are husbands or 
wives, fathers or mothers, to put your hands to the 
plough. 

But do you say, " This is so strange a thing ?" What, 
my brethren ! Is it not much more strange that a fami- 
ly professing to be Christian, professing to have a firm 
hope for eternity, should advance toward that eternity 
without giving any sign of that hope, without any 
preparation, without any conversation, perhaps, alas ! 
without any thought concerning it ? Ah ! this is very 
strange ! 

Do you say, " This is a thing of very little repute 
or glory, and to which a certain degree of shame is 
attached V- And who, then, is the greatest : that fa- 
ther who, in former and happier days, was the high- 
priest of God in his own house, and who increased his 
paternal authority and gave it a divine unction by kneel- 
ing down with his children before his Father and the 

* James, i., 22. % Prov., xv., 8. 



FAMILY WORSHIP. 417 

Father of them all ; or that worldly man in our days, 
whose mind is engaged only in vain pursuits, who for- 
gets his eternal destiny and that of his children, and in 
whose house God is not ? O what a shame is this ! 

But perhaps you say, " Different times have different 
customs ; those things were well enough then, but all 
has changed now !" It is precisely because all has 
changed that we must make haste and raise up the 
family altar in the midst of families, lest the feeble tie 
that still holds back these families be broken, and they 
drag both Church and State into ruin. It is not when 
the disease has spread with great violence that reme- 
dies become useless ; and before a man's life is despair- 
ed of, the most powerful preservatives are given to 
him. 

Thus, then, do yon, who, by the grace of God, are 
well disposed, and have made good resolutions, make 
an attempt, and be not discouraged ; make another still; 
resort to prayer; ask God to guide you Himself, to 
sustain you, and give you success ; ask Jesus Christ to 
be with you ; for " where two or three are gathered 
together in His name, there is He in the midst of them."* 

But, my brethren, if you wish to erect an altar unto 
God in your house, you must, first of all, erect one 
in your own heart. And is there one there? I ask 
you, my brethren, Is there one ? Ah ! could I draw 
back the veil, could I now penetrate into the hearts of 
those who listen to me, what would I see ? Or, rather, 
O Lord ! what must Thou see in our hearts ? Thou 
from whom nothing is veiled, and before whom all 
things are naked and visible ! 

In your heart, my dear hearer, I see an altar erected 
to pleasure and worldliness ; there you offer up your 
morning sacrifice ; there you sacrifice, especially in the 

* Matt,, xviii., 20. 



418 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

evening ; and the incense arising from it intoxicates and 
bewilders you even at night. 

In your heart, my dear hearer, I see an altar erected 
to the good gifts of this world, to riches, to mammon. 

In yours, my dear hearer, I see an altar consecrated 
to yourself. You are the idol whom you worship, 
whom you exalt above every thing else, for whom you 
wish for all things, and at the feet of whom you would 
fain see all the world kneel. 

My brethren, is there an altar in your hearts erected 
to the only living and true God ? Are you the temple 
of God, and does God's Spirit dwell within you ? So 
long as there is no altar erected to God in your souls, 
there can be none in your houses ; " For what fellow- 
ship hath righteousness with unrighteousness ? and what 
communion hath light with darkness ? and what concord 
hath Christ with Belial ? and what agreement hath the 
temple of God with idols ?"* 

Be converted, then, in your hearts ! Die to the 
world, to sin, to yourselves even, and live to God in 
Jesus Christ our Lord. Immortal souls, Christ has re- 
deemed you at a great price ! He gave His whole life 
on the cross for you. Learn, then, "that He died for 
all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto 
themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and 
rose again."f " Wherefore come out from among idols, 
and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the 
unclean thing ; and I will receive you, and will be a 
father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, 
saith the Lord Almighty."J 

O, happy is that family, my brethren, which has em- 
braced that God who says, " I will dwell in them, and 
walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall 
be my people !"§ Happy for time, and happy for eter- 

* 2 Cor., vi., 14, 15, 16. f lb., v., 15. i lb., vi., 17, 18. $ lb., vi., 16. 



FAMILY WORSHIP. 419 

nityl How can you hope to meet with those whom 
you love near Christ in heaven, unless with them you 
seek Christ on earth ? How shall you assemble as a 
family there, if you have not as a family attended to 
heavenly things here below ? But as to the Christian 
family which shall have been united in Jesus, it will, 
without doubt, meet around the throne of the glory of 
Him whom it will have loved without having seen. It 
will only change its wretched and perishable dwelling 
for the vast and eternal mansions of God. Instead of 
being an humble family of the earth, united to the whole 
family of heaven by the same ties, it will have become 
an innumerable and glorious family. It will surround 
the throne of God with the hundred and forty-four thou- 
sand, and will say, as it said on earth, but with joy and 
glory, " Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, 
and honor, and power."* 

O, my brethren, if but one father or mother would 
now resolve to meet together in the presence of the 
Lord, if one single person not yet bound by domestic 
ties were to resolve to raise an altar unto God in his 
house when he shall be so bound, and would, in some 
future day, so act that abundant blessings would de- 
scend upon him and his, I w 7 ould give thanks unto God 
for having spoken ! 

Dear hearer ! may the Lord so affect your heart that 
you may now exclaim, " As for me and my house, we 
will serve the Lord !" Amen. 

* Rev., iv., 11. 



420 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 



XVII. THE MIRACLES ; OR, TWO ERRORS. 

AN ESSAY.* 

" Illud nondum est vere credere, quum Dei virtutem mirantur, ut doctri- 
nam simpliciter credant esse veram, non autem penitus se illi subjiciant." 

Calyinus. 

Geneva is still, in some respects, the city of the Ref- 
ormation. It is aware of its primitive vocation, and, in 
spite of the destructive influence of indifference and in- 
fidelity, no religious subject is here investigated without 
causing a thrill to run through the whole population. 

This has lately been the case with regard to the ques- 
tion of miracles. This city, which seems to be in a 
lukewarm state when faith is concerned, regained some- 
thing of its former sensibility ; it was aroused when 
men asserted that the supernatural works of Christianity 
were here denied. We must acknowledge that it was 
a critical moment ; and the cry of alarm, uttered at that 
time by distinguished men, was justly re-echoed within 
the walls of the city of Calvin, and pierced "even to 
the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints 
and marrow."f At present, it is true, this feeling appears 
to have passed away. But the opportunity of calmly 
examining the subject of attack is on that account more 
favorable than it was. We believe that both at Gene- 
va and in France sincere men who are seeking the truth 
feel the need of this. Doubtless, many true Christians 
have always believed in miracles without much reflec- 
tion. Now the Scriptures require of us an intelligent 
faith. " We speak," say they, " as unto wise men ; judge 
ye what we say." 

* Read at the opening of the Summer Session of the Theological School 
at Geneva, in 1840. t Heb., iv., 12. 



THE MIRACLES ; OR, TWO ERRORS. 421 

We are too deeply convinced of the uprightness and 
noble sentiments of the author of the opinions to which 
we refer, not to believe that he will frankly and com- 
pletely expose his doctrines. When he shall have done 
so, it will be time to decide concerning them. Mean 
while we shall consider, not a mere local circumstance, 
but Rationalism in general, and more especially Ration- 
alism in its bearing upon miracles. 

There are two false views respecting the supernatu 
ral facts of Christianity. Some deny these facts alto- 
gether ; they seek, by mythical interpretation, or by 
some other means, to reduce the origin of our religion 
to proportions entirely natural ; and they assert that, 
during the time that Christ dwelt on the earth, no event 
happened more extraordinary than those which are 
daily taking place around us. This is Rationalism. 

By the other party a directly opposite position is tak- 
en. There is a religion which consists, not in believing 
that " Christ is the true God and eternal life,"* but es- 
sentially in believing in miracles. The sectaries of that 
religion, who are very numerous in our days, and are 
generally very highly esteemed in most respects, are 
satisfied with admitting that there is a revelation, but 
without believing the great truths which that revelation 
teaches. With them it matters little what doctrines are 
believed concerning man, salvation, or the person and 
work of the Redeemer. But are miracles spoken of? 
That is their sanctuary ! Filled with a zeal which is 
doubtless commendable, though unenlightened, in our 
opinion, they are eager to confess and defend it. The 
supernatural character of religion has so often been at- 
tacked that they have directed their efforts, in resisting 
the attack, to this point. This was well enough ; but 
to go no farther was wrong. These men are, frequent- 

* 1 John, v., 20. 

Nn 



422 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

ly at least, the friends of Christianity, and they have it 
in their power to render, and do render valuable service 
to it ; more than one excellent defense of it has been 
made by them.* But we could wish, for their own 
good, that they knew the sacred truths, that they pos- 
sessed the rich blessings of that revelation which they 
defend. And it is to invite them into the interior of the 
temple, whose entrances they are guarding, that we 
wish to consecrate the second part of this Essay. 

The two views which we have just described are 
equally false. In one too little importance is given to 
miracles, since they are denied ; in the other, too much 
is given, since they are made the essential thing in reli- 
gion, and the only point on which they are called to 
confess their faith. 

To deny the existence of miracles is to fall into Ra- 
tionalism ; to separate miracles from the essence of 
Christianity is bordering on superstition. 

It is true that the miracles of which we speak are 
real miracles ; but it is a mistake in language to sup- 
pose that superstition must necessarily be a belief in 
that which is false. Superstition is a false opinion con- 
cerning certain facts or practices of religion, on which 
men rely with too much fear or with too much confi- 
dence. Such is the definition given to it in the French 
language. According to this definition, the falseness is 
not so much in the object concerned as in the opinion 
which is held concerning it and the importance attach- 
ed to it. Now such is precisely the case with those 
who look upon miracles as the most important thing in 
religion. The term which we use is therefore gram- 
matically correct. 

Doubtless, superstition may have reference also to 

* The admirable work of Paley may, perhaps, be adduced as an instance 
of this. 



THE MIRACLES ; OR, TWO ERRORS. 423 

things which are false ; and it is an evident advantage 
of that particular kind of superstition to which we al- 
lude, that it refers to things which are true. But the 
more true the object of faith, the more important it is 
that the faith we give it be sound and faultless. To 
mingle superstition with truth is an evil of great impor- 
tance. 

Desiring not to wound the feelings of any one, but at 
the same time to refute an error which we think very 
dangerous, we have not feared to use a word to design 
it which most aptly expresses our idea, and which, at 
the same time, shows more clearly the importance of the 
evil which we wish to oppose. However, we care little 
for the name ; it is the thing that is concerned. 

No, it was not merely a religion of miracles that Jesus 
Christ came to found on earth. Such was the religion 
which the Jews sought after ; " The Jews require a 
sign,"* says St. Paul. But as for us, with the primitive 
Christians, we confess, first of all, " God manifest in the 
flesh, Christ crucified, the power of God, and the wis- 
dom of God." 

We propose to set forth the true doctrine respecting 
miracles, in opposition to Rationalism, on the one hand, 
and to what we think we may call a species of super- 
stition, on the other. 

I. 

Christianity is a creation ; it is the second creation. 

The entire nature and necessity of miracles are ex- 
plained by this important truth. 

Religion is not a mere collection, like all the works 
of man ; it is not composed of systems artistically com- 
bined, prepared, and arranged under a certain form, by 
one man or by several men. The most powerful intel- 

* 1 Cor., i., 22. 



424 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

lect, were it to range over the whole earth, and to select 
in each place those things which it thought the most 
excellent, and then to unite them, could not have made 
Christianity. 

Christianity is a creation, and, consequently, it is a 
work beyond the capacity of man to achieve. It were 
in vain for the most eminent naturalist to gather from 
all sides the most beautiful branches and leaves ; he 
could not make a tree. A tree can be made only by 
the hands of God. It is so with Christianity. It is, 
says Twesten, a plant come down from heaven, and it 
receives its strength and life directly from heaven. 

After the first creation, God rested, we are told in 
the Scriptures. But God's repose is an eternal action. 
" Man," says Melanchthon, " imagines, in his weakness, 
that God, after having created the world, left it to itself, 
as a ship-builder leaves the vessel he has built to the care 
of the sailors."* But it is not so. God is continually 
present in the world, with the same creating power with 
which He made heaven and earth. And why should 
there not come a day when, if necessary, that God who 
is ever present will do, in the course of time, in history, 
something similar to that which He did at the beginning 
in the work of creation ? " Our God is ever living," 
says an old proverb of the Christian people. 

The adversaries of miracles assert that we ought to 
admit nothing that is out of the natural course of events. 
But we require nothing more for Christianity than is re- 
quired for the works of nature. It is true that at pres- 
ent every thing in the physical world is developed ac- 
cording to certain laws ; things which do not exist pro- 
ceed from those which exist already ; the ear of corn 
grows out of the seed which was buried in the ground ; 

* Tit faber discedit a navi exstructa et relinquit earn nautis. — {Loci Comm. De 
Creatione.) 



THE MIRACLES J OR, TWO ERRORS. 425 

that seed proceeded from another ear, which ear grew 
out of another seed ; and so it is with all created things. 
But the time was when there was neither ear nor seed. 
If we go back for a certain space of time, we come to 
the first seed : who made it ? We can not derive the 
first origin of things from these things themselves ; else 
we would have to say that they existed before their ex- 
istence. We must, therefore, resort to the source of all 
existence, to the supreme creating power, to God. 

In the day of creation, " The things which are seen 
were not made of the things which appeared," but the 
universe was made by the Word of God. Then there 
was a great miracle, an immediate action of the supreme 
power ; it created the heavens and the earth, and all that 
in them is. 

Now, we assert nothing more of Christianity than 
every wise philosopher says of nature. We do not say 
that miracles are performed now, although, of course, 
our God who is in heaven does whatsoever seems good 
unto Him, and it were easy for Him to work the most 
wonderful prodigies at present, if He chose to do so. 
In this second creation, which is called Christianity, we 
no more claim miracles for the ordinary course of the 
Church, than the philosopher claims them for the ordi- 
nary course of nature. But, just as the philosopher must 
own that, at the origin of nature, God created, acted di- 
rectly, and independently of all subsequent laws, to make 
that which was not : so we say that, in the origin of 
Christianity, God created, acted directly, and independ- 
ently of all subsequent laws, to make that which was 
not ; He then introduced into the world a supernatural 
work and power. At the moment when Christianity 
was first given, a great miracle took place ; a miracle 
which is unequalled, and yet is displayed under a thou- 
sand different forms ; just as the great miracle which 
N n 2 



426 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

God performed when, in the beginning, He created 
heaven and earth, is manifested under a thousand vari- 
ous aspects, throughout the whole of creation. 

What happened at the commencement of our religion? 
God was made manifest in the flesh, u The eternal 
Word which v/as in the beginning, and which was God, 
by whom all things were made," came down from heav- 
en to earth, and lived as a man in this world of sin. 
And shall this wonderful manifestation be accompanied 
by no sign ? Shall He in whom was life, and that life 
the light of men, come into the world, and yet no one 
observe it? 

If a man of any peculiar capacity be charged with 
certain functions : if, for instance, he is, by the king's 
will, raised to a certain ministry, men expect an imme- 
diate influence to be exerted, and important ameliora- 
tions to be made in the affairs of which he has the con- 
trol. When a king visits a city, the ordinary course 
of business of its inhabitants is interrupted ; something 
extraordinary is expected, and the people would be 
surprised if he did not give proofs of his presence, his 
munificence, his majesty and power. 

And yet men are astonished if, when God appeared 
in the world which we inhabit, He manifested His 
glory ! While He went about from place to place here 
below as a man and a servant, they would have things 
follow their ordinary course, so that men should not 
perceive the presence of that God in the world ! Ah ! 
in this case, an ordinary state would have been most 
extraordinary, and an extraordinary state is simple, nat- 
ural, and true. 

What did He come to do here ? " Behold, I come to 
make all things new." He came to create a new world, 
new heavens, and a new earth. He came to achieve a 
spiritual creation, no less wonderful than the visible 



THE MIRACLES ; OR, TWO ERRORS. 427 

creation. Who, then, will be astonished that God dis- 
played His power when He came to create, and that 
He acted directly, and not according to certain laws 
which He had made, when He came to form something 
which was entirely new, and had not yet been subject- 
ed to any rule or law ? 

Yes, I see before me two creations : that described 
by Moses, and that related by the Evangelists ; and the 
only thing which would astonish me would be not to 
find in one something similar to what I see in the other. 

I am not astonished that, at the first creation, God 
said, " Let there be light ! and there was light." I am 
not astonished that, at the sound of His mighty voice, 
the earth produced its fountains, the trees sprang forth 
and bore fruit, and the waters, the earth, and the air 
produced living creatures in abundance. 

Neither do I wonder that when, in the second crea- 
tion, that voice which created the heavens and the 
earth was again heard, the blind recovered their sight, 
the maimed walked, the deaf heard, the w T inds and the 
waves were calmed, the water was turned into wine, 
and five barley loaves and two fishes, being multiplied 
in the hands of the Being w 7 ho formed the world with 
all its productions and its treasures, were sufficient to 
nourish five thousand persons. 

Invent, if you can, a creation without miracles ; then 
I will yield the miracles of Jesus Christ. But as long 
as you can not do that, I will think it as natural that 
the power of God should be displayed when the crea- 
tion which was to save my soul was concerned, as 
when that which was to form my body was effected. 

Observe our answer to the Rationalists and infidels, 
w r hom the doctrine of miracles offends and scandalizes. 
We do not say to them, " These miracles are, we ac- 
knowledge, wholly incongruous, destitute of all order, 



428 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

and contrary to every law; yet, for all that, whethei 
you will or no, you must bow your head before them !" 

We might say this ; we would say so if the word of 
God required it ; but we say, on the contrary, " In this 
case, the extraordinary event is order, itself, and the 
transgression of the law is the law." 

Is there a creature in existence which was produced 
by the very laws by which it is preserved ? Are not 
the creation of a being, on the one hand, and its devel- 
opment, on the other, two distinct acts, subjected to 
very different laws ? You preserve a plant by cultiva- 
ting it, watering it, and nourishing it ; but do you sup- 
pose that by these means you would ever succeed in 
creating it ? Why, then, are you astonished that some- 
thing different from what we witness now should have 
happened at the origin of Christianity ? Why should 
the period when (as all acknowledge) the world re- 
ceived new life and underwent a new creation, be sub- 
jected to the daily course in which we are living ? 

You have often been told in history that we must not 
judge of past ages by the age in which we live ; that it 
were unjust, for instance, to measure the events of the 
days of the Crusades by the narrow limits of present 
manners ; that different times have different manners. 
And must not this rule, which is admitted in every case, 
be admitted on a much greater scale when we are 
speaking of that epoch, unequaled in history, when life 
and glory, when the God of Heaven Himself came 
down to the earth ? 

It is true that miracles are supernatural facts ; but in 
one sense they are also natural facts. They belong to 
a superior order of things, to a superior world ; and 
they are perfectly conformed with the supreme law 
which governs them. In that world miracles are not 
miracles ; they belong to the course of nature. At the 



THE MIRACLES ; OR, TWO ERRORS. 429 

establishment of Christianity, the superior world acted 
upon the inferior world, conformably to the laws which 
are peculiar to it ; a miracle is nothing more than this. 
What can be more necessary than this action ? And 
what can be more natural than the manner in which it 
is accomplished ? Would you ask a soldier not to act 
like a soldier, or a learned man not to talk like one ? 
How, then, can you ask God to act and speak other- 
wise than as God ? It would be a miracle were God 
to act like a man ; it is perfectly natural that God should 
act like Himself. 

And is this idea of a superior law which modifies in- 
ferior laws an unheard-of thing? Does not natural 
philosophy give us similar instances ? Do we not con- 
stantly see the laws of nature interrupted by the laws 
which are above them ? For instance, there is a uni- 
versal law of weight, in virtue of which my arm falls 
down after it has been raised. But the strength of my 
will is sufficient to counteract that law, to constrain it 
to yield, and to raise my arm again to the same height. 
Just so with miracles. Laws and influences less eleva- 
ted yield to laws and influences which are superior. 
Miracles are the right of the strongest. 

This extraordinary action of God is above all the laws 
of nature with which we are acquainted ; but it is con- 
nected with the universal order of things. It belongs 
to the vast plan of God, which contains at once both the 
natural course of events and these supernatural mani- 
festations. In the government of an earthly king, ac- 
cording to the ideas of our modern nations, the king 
ought not, it is true, appear in person habitually ; every 
thing is accomplished through the medium of the minis- 
ters whom he has himself appointed ; the responsibility, 
the council, and the action are theirs. This is the ordi- 
nary course of things. But there are circumstances 



480 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

in which the king must show himself to be superior to 
all his ministers ; there are cases when he acts in oppo- 
sition to them, when he degrades and dismisses them, 
and appoints others. How contracted would be the 
views of those who would pretend that this direct ac- 
tion of the king were contrary to the plan of the consti- 
tutional government ! Not only is this royal action a 
part of the plan of that government, but it is its very 
perfection. Just so it is with the immediate interference 
of God in the government of the world by means of 
miracles. Those who would have God limit Himself 
to permitting the laws which He has established to act, 
and then let these laws, as it were, tie His hands, take a 
very narrow view of the plans of the Supreme Being, 
They must have a very mean idea of His greatness, 
and they do not even allow Him the power of veto, 
which in the most democratic monarchies is granted to 
the king. Let us take a higher view of these things ; 
and then that which appeared before to be the most 
shocking confusion will become the most beautiful har- 
mony. 

Take another example. True Christianity, true pi- 
ety, may be thought very extraordinary in this selfish 
world ; but as soon as Christianity has been recognized, 
men must no longer wonder at certain things which be- 
long to its very nature, although they are wholly con- 
trary to the common course of things in the world. To 
make one's self a slave is contrary to nature, for man 
loves liberty ; he was born in it, and a man who is de- 
graded enough to sell himself to another, deserves all the 
contempt of his fellows. Nevertheless, we are told that 
missionaries have become slaves among slaves, so that 
they 'might save some of them; and, far from exciting 
our contempt, they win our warmest admiration. As 
soon as Christianity is admitted, we call that a simple 



The miracles; or, two errors. 431 

and even excellent deed which, a few moments before, 
we thought to be revolting. 

So it is with miracles ; that which, in the ordinary 
course of things, would appear very extraordinary, be- 
comes natural when the Supreme God reveals Himself. 
When revelation is admitted, miracles are likewise ad- 
mitted ; as, when a Christian's charity is recognized, ah 
the prodigies of devotion accompany it 

Without miracles, revelation would not reveal the 
power and divinity of Him who speaks. Without them, 
instead of being a glorious and evident fact, it would be 
abstruse and obscure. Miracles alone give it real pub- 
licity. They alone can and do announce that the God 
of Heaven makes known the mysteries of His chanty 
to the earth. 

To consider each of the miracles as an isolated fact 
is, as Neander remarks, a \ery erroneous manner of 
looking at them. Then, indeed, they would not be ra- 
tional. Each miracle is a member of a vast whole, and 
is part of a union of manifestations of the Divine Crea- 
tor. Suppose a man condemned by the laws sees his 
fetters suddenly unbound and the door of his prison 
opened, and hears these words : " Go, and save thyself!" 
I can then exclaim that the laws are broken. But if I 
consider this fact in its connection with other facts ; if I 
learn that a great king has just returned to his capital, 
perhaps after a rebellion; that he resumes the throne; 
that he celebrates the marriage of his son, and that he 
wishes all his people, even to the prisoner in his dungeon, 
to share the joy he feels : then this fact, which, when is- 
olated, appeared extraordinary, seems perfectly natural 
in connection with this event. This is not the only fact 
of the same nature ; other prisons have been opened, 
other debts have been paid, other misfortunes have been 
alleviated. And all these various events concentrate in 



432 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

one : " The king has returned, and he wishes to show 
his favor to his people." 

It is even so with miracles ; they unite in one single 
fact the coming of God on earth, the restoration of union 
between the holy God and sinful humanity. This prin- 
cipal fact is the great miracle. It draws all the others 
along with it. Who will wonder at these lesser deliv- 
erances granted to the bodies of men when eternal de- 
liverance of their souls appears ? Are you surprised to 
see a beam of light enter your chamber when the glo- 
rious orb of the sun has risen in the skies ? When once 
the principle is acknowledged, all the consequences 
must be submitted to. 

Yes, the great miracle is Christ, the Eternal Word 
made flesh. The great miracle is, the communion be- 
tween God and guilty man restored by God Himself; 
eternal life given back to the sinner. This is the mira- 
cle which the beloved disciple can not too highly exalt, 
when he exclaims, " That which was from the begin- 
ning, which we have heard, which we have seen with 
our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands 
have handled, of the Word of Life, declare we unto 
you ; for the life was manifested, and we have seen 
it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal 
life which was with the Father, and was manifested 
unto us."* 

This miracle is the center of all the miracles ; this 
prodigy makes necessary other prodigies, which shall 
prepare, accompany, and follow it. "He covereth 
Himself with light as with a garment," says the proph- 
et, f Now this miraculous power, which shines through- 
out nature when God appears, is the glorious garment 
of God manifested in the flesh. And it is not only at 
the precise moment of His dwelling hore below that 

* 1 John, i., 1-3. f Psalm civ., 2. 



THE MIRACLES ; OR, TWO ERRORS. 433 

this glory will shine on earth. Before the sun has ap- 
peared in the horizon, the brightness proclaims its com- 
ing ; and after it has left us, the light still shows that it 
has been with us. Shall we expect less of the Sun of 
Righteousness ? He is not like the sun of the tropics, 
which rises without dawn, and sets without twilight. 
The brightness of His glory precedes Him, and the 
light of His power follows Him. 

When Christ, the great miracle, Christ, " the true God 
and eternal life,"* is once admitted, then how easy it is 
to admit the miracles which He performed ! How can 
I now avoid believing in this great miracle? Can I 
avoid it, when the entire history of the world testifies to 
its truth? Can I, when, without it, my soul would be 
without hope, without eternity, and without life ? Can 
I, when God Himself reveals it in the Scriptures which 
He has inspired ? Ah ! Lord, we would doubt our 
own life sooner than Thine, and our appearance on 
earth sooner than Thine ! 

Must we now descend from these general considera- 
tions to particular facts? Must we examine all the 
miracles of the New Testament for the purpose of jus- 
tifying them ? No, this is not necessary ; the principles 
which we have laid down are in themselves sufficient ; 
we should think it a degradation of the miracles thus to 
defend them. Nevertheless, there may be certain minds 
which need some directions, and we will not refuse that 
which may be useful ; we will therefore, without enter- 
ing into much detail, point out a few applications of the 
principles which we have laid down. 

It is the very appearance of Christ that some attack 
first ; it is this first fact of Christianity which they would 
fain reduce to ordinary proportions. By them, Jesus is 
represented as a virtuous Israelite, brought up in a pious 

* John, v., 20. 

Oo 



434 DISCOURSES AlSiD ESSAYS. 

family, who, finding that the idea of a Messiah was 
spread among his people and his relatives, appropriated 
it to himself, and made it the grand idea of his whole 
life. Thus the first miracle which is denied is, the 
very birth of the Redeemer, the incarnation, the mani- 
festation of God in the flesh, which is the sacred foun- 
dation of our whole religion.* The Holy Scriptures 
declare to us that natural causes were put aside in the 
birth of Christ, and that the direct and creating power 
of God, who had made the first Adam, created this one 
also in His mother's womb. The account of the evan- 
gelists is so simple, so natural, so historical, that it is 
impossible to believe that it is a mere fable, invented by 
the imagination. Besides, an idea like that of incarna- 
tion was altogether foreign to the monotheism of the 
Jews, which placed a gulf between God and the world. 
If there are any other religions, such as that of India, in 
which we meet with fabulous incarnations, this is ex- 
plained by the peculiar characters of the nations among 
which they are found. But shall we be surprised to 
find in Christianity the truth and realization of that which 
elsewhere is but a presentiment and a vague concep- 
tion ? If Christ be the Redeemer, if He be the Author 
of a new spiritual creation for humanity, then we ought, 
even though the sacred writers themselves had kept si- 
lence, to presume something similar to what they an- 
nounce to us. When you want to cleanse impure water, 
do you use some of that very water for that purpose? 
The Author of a new creation can not have proceeded 
from the old creation which He came to change. The 
Regenerator of humanity can not have been a polluted 
member of the unclean body which He came to purify. 
He who came to bring divine life into the world must 

* See this instance and others in the writings of various German Ration- 
alists. 



THE MIRACLES J OR, TWO ERRORS. 435 

Himself have emanated from that life, and have pos- 
sessed it in perfection ; otherwise, how could He have 
communicated it? The first man of the new creation 
had to proceed from the hand of God just like the first 
man of the old creation. " Men do not," He Himself 
said, " put new wine into old bottles : but they put new 
wine into new bottles."* 

The birth of Jesus was, then, the first of His prodi- 
gies ; it is the greatest miracle of humanity ; and it is 
readily understood that, around this miracle, which 
placed heaven in such intimate connection with earth, 
other supernatural facts were ranged, like the beams of 
glory of that day-spring from on high, to give light to 
them that sit in the shadow of death. 

No ; Christ was not merely a virtuous man, brought 
up by a pious family ; it was not only at Nazareth and 
at Jerusalem, by the conversations of the Pharisees and 
doctors, that He was educated. "In Him dwelleth all 
the fullness of the Godhead bodily."f And those who 
surrounded Him " beheld His glory, the glory as of the 
only-begotten of the Father."J 

Shall we now pass on to the miracles of Jesus Christ 
themselves? It is said that it was by virtue of His 
power over souls that He effected wonderful cures, and 
His omnipotent influence is also explained both by the 
example of those men whose tone of voice and authori- 
ty have sometimes been seen to induce the sick to do 
things of which they would never have thought them- 
selves capable, and by that of magnetizers. 

It is true that if the miracles of Jesus had been effect- 
ed only by means of the influence of His mind over 
other minds, they would, on that very account, cease to 
be supernatural actions ; but they were not thus effect- 
ed. On the contrary Christ's miracles were performed 
* Matt., is.., 17. f Col., ii., 9. t John, i., 14. 



436 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

through the influence of His word over physical nature, 
over bodies. The influence of a soul over a body is not 
irrational, else we would have to say that every human 
being is irrational. Our soul itself exerts an influence 
over the body, but that influence extends only over our 
own body; whereas the soul of Jesus acted not only 
upon His own body, but upon the bodies of all creatures. 
He said to a dead man, who had been lying four days 
in the tomb, "Arise !" and immediately the blood, nerves, 
muscles, and all obeyed His order, just as our limbs, in 
a state of health, obey our wills. We command no one 
but ourselves. Christ, the master of nature, command- 
ed all nature. What can be more simple, natural, and 
true ? 

But, on the other hand, what can be more extraordina- 
ry, what more absurd, than to attempt to explain the mir- 
acles which Jesus Christ performed as having been ac- 
complished by means of His influence over the soul, over 
an excitable imagination ? Is the imagination of a man 
who was born blind, however excited it may become, 
capable of restoring his sight? Is the imagination of a 
dead man capable of raising him to life ? Do we not 
often see Christ acting upon persons who are absent, 
afar off, and with whom He had not, and never had, any 
connection ? # Was it the influence of the soul of Jesus 
over souls which had left their bodies (as, for instance, 
that of the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, or 
that of the vounsf man of Nain, or that of the brother of 
Martha and Mary, whose body had already decayed), 
that restored those souls to life ? But if this be so, is it 
not the greater miracle of the two ? 

Was it on account of the power of His soul upon 
other souls that, when Jesus spake with authority to the 
winds and the waves, the winds and the waves were 
still, and there was a great calm ? 

* John, iv., 49-54. 



THE MIRACLES ; OR, TWO ERRORS. 437 

Finally, was it by the action of His soul upon oth- 
er souls that Jesus fed five thousand men with five 
loaves and two fishes, making such an impression on 
those men themselves by this miracle that, struck with 
this extraordinary action of the Lord, they exclaimed, 
" This is of a truth that prophet that should come 
into the world." And they wished to take Him away 
by force, " to make Him a king."* No ; Jesus here 
manifested His glory and creating power ; He dis- 
played that power which He has not ceased to exert 
in all ages, accomplishing the highest ends by the small- 
est means, and compensating unspeakably for the mean- 
ness of the instruments He uses by the greatness of the 
divine force with which He invests them. Thus, to 
quote but one example, fifteen centuries later, He chang- 
ed the Church and the world by means of a monk, the 
son of a miner of Mansfield,f and a priest, the son of a 
peasant of Tockenburg.J 

And if, from the miracles of the Son of God, we pro- 
ceed to those of the effusion of the Holy Spirit on the 
day of Pentecost, what do we meet w T ith ? Some at- 
tempt to explain it as a natural fact. They say that, in 
the disposition of mind in which the apostles were, the 
most ordinary events must have possessed solemnity, 
and, the wind having blown, they imagined that they 
saw the fulfillment of their prayers ! The Jews, too, 
who had arrived from different countries, were each 
astonished to hear his own tongue spoken, for the idea 
that the apostles might have learned these various idi- 
oms in their travels did not enter their minds ! 

But how will you explain as the effect of the wind the 
wonderful transformation which then took place among 
the apostles ? How can you suppose that those disci- 
ples, to whom nothing till then could give courage, 

* John.,vi., 14, 15. \ Luther. t Zwingle, 

O o 2 



438 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

whom nothing could arouse from their state of fear, re- 
tirement, and silence — neither the remembrance of the 
words of Jesus and His miracles, nor His resurrection 
from the dead, nor His ascension into heaven — should 
suddenly arise from this state of apathy, transformed, 
their timidity being changed into courage, their silence 
into strong and powerful language, their weakness into 
perfect faith, all by the sound of the wind ! What was 
there in so ordinary a thing that appeared so extraordi- 
nary to them, and was sufficient to induce them to leave 
their state of retirement, and confront the Jews and the 
whole world ? 

Previous to the Pentecost, none of the apostles had 
taught in public ; at that moment they appeared ; the 
Church was founded ; it increased from day to day, 
from age to age ; it stands throughout eternity ; and 
yet all this was brought about by the blowing of the 
wind ! Still more : from that time forth the apostles 
spoke strange tongues ; this gift of tongues remained 
for several years in the Church ; and it was given by a 
breath of wind ! 

Nay, we are told, they had learned these languages 
in their travels. But how could they have learned the 
languages of the Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, in 
the East ; of Mesopotamia and Cappadocia, of Pontus 
and Asia, of Phrygia and Pamphylia, in the North ; of 
Arabia and Egypt, of Libya and Cyrene, in the South ; 
and of the Cretes and the Romans in the West ? How 
could these poor Galilean fishermen, who had nwer 
left their nets except to follow Jesus, and who had nev- 
er traveled nor visited any of the countries where these 
tongues were spoken, have learned all these various 
languages of the nations of the earth in their journeys ? 

Let us leave these absurd sayings, which faith and 
reason alike reprove. The Redeemer, being raised to 



THE MIRACLES ; OR, TWO ERRORS. 439 

the right hand of the power of God, did not leave His 
disciples long in expectation. He opened the gates of 
heaven, and " the heavens dropped down from above, 
and the skies poured down righteousness."* The full- 
ness of the heavenly Spirit, which had disappeared on 
earth when man sinned, returned after the death and 
resurrection of the Son of God, and the kingdom of the 
Lord was founded anew here below. Humanity, divid- 
ed and broken up by sin into various languages and 
fragments, was again united before God in a sacred and 
glorious unity. One nation followed many nations ; to 
the many generations one generation succeeded : " the 
chosen generation, the holy nation, the peculiar peo- 
ple."f And as the token and seal of this unity which 
was re-established on earth, the confusion of tongues, 
which was a consequence of sin, was suspended. The 
Holy Spirit, the source of love and true communion of 
mind, destroyed all differences and cast down all bar- 
riers. The charity which was kindled in the hearts of 
the apostles passed to the hearts of those who listened 
to them, and the languages of the listeners were spoken 
by the apostles. There was, so to speak, but one 
tongue, one soul, and one heart. AH the partitions 
which separated brethren were destroyed, and they 
were all one in Jesus Christ. God loosened, the tongue 
of His witnesses, and, by making them talk the langua- 
ges of the people who dwelt in the East and in the West, 
in the North and in the South, He displayed the univer- 
sality of the Church which He was then establishing on 
earth. It was then but a small society, but already the 
languages of all nations were in it ; and this miracle 
loudly proclaimed the fact which, after eighteen centu- 
ries, has been realized under our own eyes, to wit, that 
Christ has" redeemed His children to God by His blood 

* Isaiah, xlv„, 8. f 1 Pet., ii. 9, 



440 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and na- 
tion."* That day was the birthday of the new Churchy 
the first day of invitation of all nations to the supper of 
the Lamb. 

Thus the most natural explanation of miracles is, to 
view them as real miracles. To attempt to deny or to 
explain them is to throw reason itself into inextricable 
difficulties. 

Come, then, ye upright but rash men, who glory in 
depriving the Scriptures of all that is most grand and 
wonderful in them ! Learn that true wisdom consists 
in observing and acknowledging the great works of 
God in the world, and not in setting them aside by means 
of subtle and ingenious inventions. Just as all the re- 
cipes of the quack must disappear before exact observa- 
tion of the diseases and the body of man ; just as all the 
idle fancies of the astrologers have disappeared before 
the study of the great laws of the heavens ; just as all 
the subtleties of scholastic theology vanished before the 
study and examination of the word of God : just so must 
all the hypotheses of Rationalism be eclipsed by the ob- 
servation> the study, and the knowledge of that great 
fact which the Scriptures proclaim., and which rules the 
whole history of the world : " God- has been made man- 
ifest in the flesh." You really know nothing of his- 
tory so long as you are ignorant of this fact. Forsake 
your amusements, your fables, and your hypotheses* 
and learn to know the most glorious event that has 
taken place on earth for the human race to which you 
belong ; elevate yourself to the level of this great mir- 
acle, and all the miracles which accompany it will at 
once be explained to you. 

II. 
To deny the reality of miracles is Rationalism j to 

* Rev., v.. 9, 



THE MIRACLES ; OR, TWO ERRORS. 441 

separate miracles from the very essence of Christianity 
is a species of superstition ; and this is the second false 
view to which we have referred. 

We often meet, in these days, in the Christian world 
with persons who are enlightened in many respects, but 
who are inclined to admit revelation and miracles with- 
out going much farther. The most common religion 
of our contemporaries consists merely in believing that 
there is a religion given by God, and that it is that of 
Jesus Christ. This, doubtless, is something ; but it is the 
essence of that religion that we ought to know, and es- 
pecially that we ought to possess ; nevertheless, this is 
not even thought worthy of being acquainted with. If 
the minds, doubtless honest and religious, which have 
stopped at this point, admit some of the doctrines of 
revelation, they attach but little importance to them. 
In their opinion, a great deal of liberality is necessary 
on this subject ; one may with equal propriety assert 
any of the conflicting doctrines. Orthodoxy, Arianism, 
and Socinianism are, in their view, but shades which 
do not prevent unity. They are ready at all times to 
confess the doctrine of miracles, but to profess belief in 
the Christian doctrines would, they suppose, be an act 
of enslavement. They have a frame, but no picture ; 
the foundations, but no edifice erected for protection ; 
a pedestal without a statue. Miracles constitute their 
religion. 

Now, the essential characteristic of all superstition is, 
to imagine and multiply miracles, without revealing any 
thing which promotes God's glory and man's salvation. 
Indeed, true religion is composed of two elements: 
facts, which are above man's capacity, and truths, which 
are no less above it ; facts and truths intimately united 
in a spirit of holiness and life. 

Now, one of these elements, the miracles, is easily in- 
vented ; the other, the truths, can not be invented. 



442 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

A child could invent miracles ; and the more humani- 
ty is in a state of infancy, the more miracles it imagines. 
But who shall invent God's truth, the truth respecting 
eternity and man's salvation ? 

Indeed, all false religions are full of wonderful things, 
but destitute of doctrines. 

They have miracles ; they move heaven and earth ; 
they shake all the powders of creation ; and all to re- 
veal — nothing ; so that the well-known line of the Latin 
poet may be applied to them : 

" Parturiunt montes ; nascetur ridiculus mus."* 

The superstitions of India are full of miracles. In 
China, the idols, when finished, arise without assistance, 
and go to the place for which they are designed. Thus 
the statue Amida went from Corea to Japan. 

Habib, the son of Malek, exclaimed, " Mohammed, it 
is noon ! If thou wouldst have us believe in thee, cause 
the night to come on immediately ; so stand on Mount 
Abu-Kabai", and command the moon, which is now near 
the sun (for it is the fifth day of the month), to become 
full ; then order it to place itself on the Kaaba, to go 
seven times around that sacred house, to prostrate itself 
before it, and to say three times unto thee, in good Ar- 
abic, so that all the inhabitants of the town and country 
may hear it, ' Peace be with thee, O true apostle of 
God !' Then command it to enter thy right sleeve 
and come out at thy left sleeve ; then to divide itself in 
twain, and let one part be in the East and the other in 
the West ; and, finally, with the light skip of a grass- 
hopper, let them approach and unite." Mohammed re- 
plied, " I am not in the habit of retracting ;" and at that 
moment, all that the son of Malek had asked was fulfill- 
ed ; the moon spoke excellent Arabic, and passed through 
the prophet's sleeves ! 

* The mountain travails, and brings forth a mouse. 



THE MIRACLES ; OR, TWO ERRORS. 443 

Popery has invented no fewer miracles than have the 
pagan superstitions or the disciples of Mohammed. Do 
not its legends tell us, for instance, that Ignatius Loyola, 
the founder of the Jesuits, in the sixteenth century, used 
frequently to walk through the air ; or that, on enter- 
ing, at night, a dark chamber, he lighted it immediately 
by his presence, as though several lamps were burning? 
Two hundred miracles of Ignatius were presented to 
the audience of the Rota* and to the congregation of 
rites, as his titles to canonization. 

What is it that essentially distinguishes these pretend- 
ed miracles from the true miracles of Jesus Christ ? 
Several marks, indeed ; but the most important is this : 
the miracles of Jesus Christ reveal a magnificent union 
of truths, which are for the glory of God and the salva- 
tion of man ; whereas all the miracles of the supersti- 
tious nations of the East, of Mohammed and of Rome, 
teach and reveal nothing. 

But, some may say, these miracles of Mohammed and 
Rome are false, while those of Christianity are true ; 
they can not, therefore, be compared together. 

It is true that there is a difference, and equity re- 
quires that it should be acknowledged. But the Christ- 
ian doctrines are so essential to the Christian miracles, 
that, as soon as they are separated from them, the latter 
cease to be the real miracles of the Gospel, and assume 
a false character. 

Ecclesiastical history tells us that a certain pope, 
Stephen the Fourth, caused the corpse of Formosus, one 
of his predecessors, whose faith, knowledge of the Scrip- 
tures, science, and Christian virtues have been highly 
praised, to be disinterred. He clothed it with all the 
pontifical ornaments, placed the tiara on its head, cov- 

* A committee of the cardinals, so called, it is supposed, from the build- 
ing where they originally met being round, like a wheel.—- Trans, 



444 DISCOURSES ANI> ESSAYS. 

ered it with the alb, which fell down to its feet, and put 
the stola, with its lace and embroidered crosses, around 
its neck, and over all, the cope woven with gold and 
hooked before : then he was seated on the papal throne. 
According to Stephen, that was Formosus, 

A council was called together ; and when all the 
Fathers had gravely surrounded the pontifical seat, 
Stephen came forward, and, addressing Formosus, said, 
" Bishop of Porto I why didst thou yield to thine ambi- 
tion so far as to usurp the See of Rome V' As the pope 
Formosus did not reply, a deacon was given him as an 
advocate ; but, in spite of the defense, Formosus was 
acknowledged and condemned as guilty ; he was di- 
vested of his pontifical robes ; the three fingers with 
which he used to give the blessing were cut off; he 
was decapitated, and his body was cast into the Tiber.* 

It is true that in some respects Stephen was right. 
This pope, invested with all the insignia of the sovereign 
pontiff, was indeed Formosus ; those were his hands, 
his fingers, and his head ; it was him whom the council 
judged, and whom his impious successor apostrophized. 

And yet it was not he ; for the soul was wanting. 
Stephen was mistaken, and all those prelates were only 
acting a shameful comedy. There was no Formosus 
there ; the real Formosus had appeared before a higher 
tribunal, and was then in the presence of the Supreme 
Judge. 

Just so with miracles. Those who pretend to pos- 
sess Christ's miracles, at the same time that they sepa- 
rate them from His doctrines, are, it is true, like Ste- 
phen, right in some respects. They have something, 
but it is only a corpse. The life, the essential object of 
miracles, the Christian doctrines, are wanting in those 
miracles. 

* Auxilius, de ordinationibus Formosi P., lib. ii. — (Abbi Fleury y s Ecclesias- 
tical History, book 54,) 



THE MIRACLES ; OK, TWO ERRORS. 445 

The miracles of Christ, apart from His doctrines, are 
not false, it is true ; but they are falsified, spoiled, inani- 
mate, and powerless, and they can no longer be the 
objects of a pure faith. 

The sacred doctrines of the Gospel are the essential 
thing. To attempt to make miracles the principal 
matter is not to profess Evangelical Christianity ; it is 
to reduce that religion to the level of contemptible su- 
perstitions, or, at least, to recall those times in the Mid- 
dle Ages when, a corrupt Christianity being introduced 
among the unpolished nations, who were, nevertheless, 
full of that life and imagination that distinguish states 
which are still young, Christendom was seen forgetting 
the saving doctrine, viewing nothing but miracles in the 
Gospel, imagining that they constantly saw the super- 
natural facts of primitive times renewed, and investing 
the Saints, even during their lives, with a strange halo 
of wonderful miracles. 

Even then some lofty minds protested against this 
excessive love of miracles. The famous Chancellor of 
the University of Paris, John Gerson, exclaimed, with 
energy, in the Council of Constance, " In our days the 
Church is wanting in a fundamental knowledge of the 
Bible ; and thus we see an increasing inclination for 
visions, revelations, and miracles. Let us beware of 
encouraging it." And the illustrious victim of that 
council, John Huss, replied to those who asked miracles 
of him, " It is by miracles that anti-Christ will one day 
deceive the world. The confession of the truth and the 
sufferings endured for its sake are the surest proofs that 
a man is taught of God." "A true Christian," said he 
again, " does not look for miracles ; but he holds fast to 
the promises of the word." 

Thus, in those days as in ours, those who had not the 
sacred doctrines of the truth desired to fill their place by 

P p 



446 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

a love for miracles ; and in our days, as in former times, 
those who possessed that truth considered it infinitely 
superior to all prodigies, and even to the true miracles 
of Jesus Christ. 

To be contented with miracles is a characteristic of 
children; to proceed to the truths which they reveal is 
a characteristic of full-grown men. 

Are the letters of credit which he carries with him 
the most important matters with an ambassador? Is it 
not rather the mission with which he is charged ? What 
would men think of the ministers of a king if they were 
to amuse themselves in fumbling the parchment and the 
seals presented to them by an ambassador, and say that 
these are the principal things ; that the message which 
he has received for them from his master matters but 
little ; that it may be, in the opinion of one, a message of 
war, in that of another, a message of peace, and in that of 
a third, something else ; that it is of little moment, pro- 
vided they are certain that this man has been sent by the 
king? Would not the ambassador suppose that they were 
ridiculing him and his master ? Would he not think that 
they were overgrown children ? Would he not gather 
his credentials together and depart from such a cabinet? 

Yet this is precisely what is now to be seen in the 
world ; in France, in Switzerland, and elsewhere, among 
Roman Catholics and among Protestants. It is enough, 
we are told, to know there are miracles, which are the 
foundation of a revelation ; and as to what that revela- 
tion may teach, it matters little ! According to one 
opinion, it may say that man is inclined to do evil, and 
according to another, that he is inclined to do good. One 
may say that he is saved by grace, and another by 
works. One may believe that the Savior is God, and 
another that He is a man. It matters little ; no one cares 
about it ; we have miracles ; that is religion, that is sal- 
vation, that is every thing ; it is enough ! 



THE MIRACLES ; OR, TWO ERRORS. 447 

This is an unhappy superstition, which is but little 
better than the infidelity which we refuted a little while 
ago. 

This superstition deprives the miracles themselves of 
their most divine characteristic. In truth, there is a 
negative and a positive aspect in miracles. By their 
negative aspect, I mean that which can not be explain- 
ed by the laws with which we are acquainted. By 
their positive aspect, I mean a manifestation of God for 
man's salvation. Now the negative aspect is a mere 
indication, a sign* which directs me to the positive as- 
pect, and invites me to look upon miracles as a new 
and glorious manifestation of the holy love of the Lord. 

And it is not merely a vague love, an undetermined 
and vaporous manifestation of God that the finger of 
miracles points us to ; it is, in the language of the Scrip- 
tures, " the revelation of the mystery which was kept 
secret since the world began ;"f it is " the things which 
have not entered into the heart of man, which God hath 
prepared for them that love Him;" J it is "the great mys- 
tery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh,"§ together 
with all that accompanies it. 

It is this divine aspect of miracles that is despised by 
men, when they look away from the truths which they 
display. 

The facts of Christianity can not be separated from 
its doctrines. When the facts are preserved without 
the doctrines, or the doctrines without the facts, not 
only one half of Christianity is taken away, but the oth- 
er half is destroyed ; just as, in taking away the soul 
from the body, the body is killed. God and God's work 
can not be separated. 

If there are theologians in Switzerland, France, Eng- 

* Such is the meaning of the Greek word translated miracles : arj/iela. 
t Rom., xvi., 25. + 1 Cor., ii., 9. $ 1 Tim., iii., 16. 



448 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

land, and America who, at the same time that they sac- 
rificed the doctrines of Christianity, have pretended to 
preserve its miracles, there are others in Germany who, 
while they sacrifice miracles, pretend to preserve the 
doctrines, and who, in the name of pantheism, have 
spoken like the most pious Christians of the Trinity, the 
Fall, and Redemption. 

But all these divisions only give us appearances, 
without the reality. The facts and doctrines of Christ- 
ianity are not in their essence two distinct things placed 
side by side, but two circles with a common center, 
two rays of light emanating from the same sun ; the 
most intimate union exists between them. 

You will not thoroughly understand all the miracles 
until you have received the whole doctrine, and received 
it in your heart. 

Before he* can view them in their real aspect, one op- 
eration must have taken place within man : that is, an 
entire transformation of heart, understanding, and life, 
a new birth, a new creation. " Many," says Twesten, 
" will say, like Nicodemus, respecting the miracles, 
1 How can these things be V But the believing Christ- 
ian will reply, with his Master, ' We speak that which 
we do know, and testify that which we have seen.' "* 

It is true that the testimony of the word is sufficient 
to induce us to admit and believe these supernatural 
facts. God has said it ; that ought to be enough. We 
present this testimony to every man, and require that 
he should believe it. But how much more easily will 
the Christian, " Who, being dead in trespasses and sins, 
hath been quickened by Christ," and hath, by regenera- 
tion, known " the exceeding greatness of the power of 
God to him-ward," understand " the working of His 
mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He 

* John, iii., 9, 11. 



THE MIRACLES ; OR, TWO ERRORS. 449 

raised Him from the dead !"* Conversion is a miracle 
of God's grace, which makes it easy to understand all 
other miracles. How can I doubt that Christ should 
have caused a divine light to shine in the eyes of His 
apostle, and have spoken to him on the road to Damas- 
cus, since He has performed things less extraordinary 
in appearance, but no less wonderful for me, and " hath 
shined in my heart, to give the light of the knowledge 
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ ?"f How 
can I doubt His having raised up the young man of 
Nain, or His friend at Bethany, when I myself have 
felt that " the Son quickeneth whom He will,"{ and 
since He hath made me " pass from death unto life ?"§ 

Still farther : not only does regeneration lead me to 
understand miracles, but it is a powerful demonstration 
of them. In the true Christian there is a new light and 
a new life. This is a fact of which every disciple of 
Christ is himself a proof. These gifts, which proceed 
from God, have nevertheless been communicated to 
him through certain men, who are the servants of God; 
just as the physical life which each individual possesses, 
and of which God alone is the author, has been com- 
municated to him by his father and mother. But, in 
the same way that, rising in nature from generation to 
generation, we arrive at the first man, who, as the 
stock or father of the human race, received his existence 
directly from God by means of creation, so, in the order 
of grace, rising from epoch to epoch in the ages of the 
Church, we reach a primary, original, full, and imme- 
diate communication of life from God, which is a new 
creation. As in grace, so in nature ; that which I see, 
and that which I am at present, necessarily leads me to 
a creation of what I see and am. 

Now if the Spirit of God performs such great things, 

* Eph., i., 19,20. f 2 Cor., iv., 6. t John, v., 21, § 1 John, iii,, 14, 

Pp2 



450 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

and works so powerfully for the conversion of souls, 
not only all around me, but among all nations, from the 
ancient ones of India to the young tribes of Polynesia, 
from the wild hordes of New Zealand to the civilized 
inhabitants of London, Geneva, or Paris, this same 
Spirit must of course have wrought, in the primary and 
creating period, when the heavens were bowed down 
and brought salvation, with much more universal and 
wonderful power. u Then I see heaven open, and the 
angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son 
of man."* The wonderful things of the present day 
make me admit all the miracles of the Gospel. 

How can a man be satisfied with miracles, make them 
bis religion, and despise the new birth and the new 
life? This would be the religion of Nicodemus, not 
that of Jesus Christ. That ruler among the Jews took 
precisely the same view as the persons of whom I speak. 
" The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto Him, 
Eabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from 
God : for no man can do these miracles that Thou doest, 
except God be with him."f This certainly was a con- 
fession of faith in miracles considered as the basis of 
revelation ; it was a clear and solemn confession ; but 
did it satisfy the Lord ? We are told, a little while 
previous, that " Many believed in His name, when they 
saw the miracles which He did. But Jesus did not 
commit Himself unto them."! Jesus did not commit 
Himself to any who made no farther profession than 
that of belief in His miracles. The miracles ought to 
lead men to receive the spiritual gifts of Christ. Those 
men of whom St. John speaks did indeed perceive, 
from the wonderful works of Jesus, that He was the 
Messiah ; but, destitute of a sense of internal wants, 
and possessing contracted, superficial, and undecided 

* John, t, fib t Ibid., iii,, 2. t Ibid., ii., 23, 24. 



THE MIRACLES ; OR, TWO ERRORS. 451 

minds, they turned but partially unto Him, and were 
ready to forsake Him as soon as they might be required, 
by remaining faithful to Him, to struggle against sin 
ind the world. Perhaps some of them even desired to 
profit by the presence of the Messiah and His power 
to accomplish worldly objects, to procure their inde- 
pendence, or to distinguish themselves among their 
countrymen. 

Jesus rejected this faith; "He did not commit Him- 
self unto them;" and seeing that Nicodemus had fallen 
into this error, but had a nobler and more profound 
mind than the rest, He placed the more important and 
glorious miracle which was to be accomplished in his 
heart in opposition to those external miracles which the 
ruler of the Jews acknowledged. " Jesus answered 
and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Ex- 
cept a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom 
of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; and 
that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not 
that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again."* 

Thus it was that the Savior taught " the man of mir- 
acles." the real nature of His religion and His kingdom. 
He showed him that while the law only cuts off the 
outward excrescences of sin, the Gospel gives a new 
heart, a new mind, and creates a new man, born of 
God. He showed the close connection which exists 
between outward miracles and inward regeneration, 
and placed the latter of these far above the former. 

It is doubtless true that a man may simply have faith 
in miracles, and that that is better than no faith at all ; 
but it is a human faith, which is often produced by false 
wonders, for which the Holy Spirit is not needed, and 
which, if it leads no farther, is useless. Christianity 
knows no real faith except that by which the Holy Spir- 

* John, iii., 5-7. 



452 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

it regenerates the heart and the life. That which does 
not produce in man a change which brings him near to 
God, scarcely deserves the name of faith in the view of 
the Gospel. " It is not really faith," says Calvin, " to 
admire the power of God in miracles, in such a way as 
to believe merely that the doctrine is true, without en- 
tirely submitting to it."* " There is a certain kind of 
faith," he says in another place, " which exists only in 
the mind, and w T hich readily vanishes away, because it 
is not established in the heart ; it is what St. James calls 
a dead faith. True faith is inseparable from the spirit 
of regeneration."! 

We are now defending the religion of Jesus Christ 
against that of Nicodemus ; we are requiring that Christ- 
ianity be not reduced to such a superficial, powerless, 
outward, contracted system as that which that Pharisee 
admitted after having seen Jesus Christ ; we are putting 
the doctrine of the new birth and new life in the high- 
est place, as our Lord did. And if, among those who 
teach the doctrine of Nicodemus, there were any who 
wondered that we said, " Man must be born of the 
Spirit," we would only reply to such, as our Lord did, 
"Are ye masters in Israel, and know not these things ?"J 

There is a great and eternal harmony between the 
miracles of Christianity and its doctrines. The harmo- 
nies of Christianity are found every where. There is 
harmony between Christianity and the world considered 
as a creation of God ; to establish this truth, famous 
works on natural philosophy have been written in our 
own days. There is harmony between Christianity and 
the history of the human race. " The world," exclaims 

* Illud nondum est vere credere, quum Dei virtutem mirantur, ut doctri- 
nam simpliciter credant esse veram, non autem penitus se illi subjiciant.— 
Jn Johan. ii. 

t Vera fides spiritu regenerationis semper constat. — Ibid, 

% John, iii., 10. 



THE MIRACLES ; OR, TWO ERRORS. 453 

the greatest of modern historians, " seems to have been 
arranged solely to favor the advent and the doctrines 
of our Lord."* And while Christianity is in harmony 
with every thing that comes from God, shall it not be in 
harmony with itself? Yes ; every where I meet with 
a striking harmony between the facts and the doctrines 
of the Gospel. The former lead me to the latter ; the 
miracles possess no value unless they conduct me to the 
Christian truths ; so that if, admitting the facts, I reject 
the dogmas, I refuse to follow the finger of God ; I stop 
my ears to His powerful voice ; I am blind and deaf. 
Let us hastily glance at these sublime harmonies, in 
which all the w r isdom of the Lord shines forth. 

First Harmony. — There is perfect identity of nature 
between miracles and the doctrine of Inspiration, as 
Christians ought to receive it. In truth, wherein con- 
sists the inspiration of the Scriptures ? In the fact that 
the natural powers of the w r riter were withdrawn, while 
a virtue, which emanated from God, took their place 
and dictated the sacred books which were to enlighten 
the world. Now, what is a miracle but a cessation of 
natural powers and an immediate intervention of God's 
power? The Bible itself is therefore a miracle, and all 
the wonders which surround it are but the accompani- 
ments of this principal miracle. How can we admit 
the former and not admit the latter ? What ! shall I 
admit that God supposed it w r orth while to interfere di- 
rectly when sight was to be restored to a poor blind 
man, or the command of his limbs to a poor paralytic ; 
and shall I nevertheless imagine that He did not direct- 
ly interfere when that Book of books, that code of laws 
for the human race, which was to remain on earth till 
the end of time, to enlighten the nations, to save souls, 
to found and preserve the eternal kingdom, was to be 

* John de Muller to Charles Bonnet. 



454 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

given to mankind ? Shall I admit that God desired to 
act alone, without being assisted by any individual, when 
a dumb man was to be made to speak, or a dead man 
to be raised to life ; but that when He is to make Him- 
self known to His creatures, to write those pages which 
are to point out to a fallen race the road to heaven, He 
only guides His servants, and that in such a way as not 
always to guard them from falling into error ? No ; I 
admit the miracle which produced the Bible before all 
others, and I treasure it up with adoration in my heart, 
as the word which the very mouth of my God has 
spoken. 

Second Harmony. — What is it that the miracles of 
Christ lead me to contemplate on earth ? All manner 
of infirmities and suffering ; the deaf, the blind, the leper, 
the dumb ; fevers, bloody issues, the Wicked One vio- 
lently tormenting souls and bodies ; finally, death, fearful 
death. And what is the meaning of this mournful es- 
cort of humanity, which has never ceased to accom- 
pany it down to our times? These miseries speak to 
me of another misery, which is their source ; of a re- 
bellion and fall. They cry aloud to me, " Sin hath en- 
tered into the world, and death by sin*"* They de- 
clare to me that sin did not come into the world as a 
mere example, but as a beginning, a principle, the con- 
sequences of which extend to us. As St. Augustine 
has said, there are " several deaths,"f but they all ad- 
vance together in the train of sin, which is itself the first 
of them. If, at the sight of this troop of blind, paralytic, 
and dumb men who surround Jesus Christ, I say to my- 
self, looking back upon the bodily beauty of Adam, 
God did not create man with such infirmities : I also 

* Rom., v., 12. 

t De civit. Dei, xiii., 12. Sicut universa terra ex multis terns, et uni- 
versa ecclesia ex multis constat ecclesiis, sic universa mors ex omnibus. 



THE MIRACLES ; OR, TWO ERRORS. 455 

say, in view of all the corruption which exists in our 
hearts, God did not create man such as He has forbid- 
den that he should be ; God can not be the author of 
what is opposed to Himself! He created man in a pure 
and normal state ; but, together with the physical evils 
from which Jesus delivered His contemporaries, there 
entered into the whole human race, as Melanchthon says, 
a certain inclination which is agreeable to us, a certain 
attraction which leads us to sin, a vivacious plant, the 
fruits of which are miseries brought forth in all seasons 
— " original sin."* The miracles, then, reveal to me 
the fall and hereditary corruption of humanity. 

Third Harmony. — The miracles of Jesus Christ pre- 
sent Him to us every where as promptly and powerful- 
ly delivering all who are in any kind of suffering or 
peril. Even though the unfortunate person belong to 
the lowest class of society, though he be at a great dis- 
tance from Jesus, or even though he have merited his 
misfortune, nothing hinders Christ. He speaks, and 
His mighty voice is enough to drive away evil spirits 
and raise the dead. " He came to seek and to save that 
which was lost."f But what is the object of these de- 
liverances, other than to lead us to a still more admira- 
ble salvation, of which Christ is the Author? It is from 
condemnation, from sin and hell that He has come to 
save us ; and He delivers men from them, even though 
they be in the lowest degree of human corruption, and 
at the very gates of the eternal pit. Still more : in the 
same way that He drove away the evils with which 
those who surrounded Him were struck, alone, and 
without the assistance of the sufferers,, so He saves man 
alone, without any merit or assistance on the part of 
the latter. The sufferings of Christ, and His submission 

* Vivax quaedam est hepyeia peccatum originate. — Loci Comm. Theolo- 
gici. f Luke, xix., 10. 



456 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

to God in His sufferings, His death and the purity of 
His obedience in that death, His blood which was shed, 
and the innocence of that blood — this is the holy, the 
spotless, the only sacrifice, which alone expiates all sins 
and is an equivalent for all sufferings. What shall man 
add to it ? A perfect salvation, which has come down 
from heaven, saves man, without the merits or the 
strength of man : this is what the miracles announce, 
though feebly, and what the Cross of Redemption, raised 
on Golgotha, majestically proclaims. 

And, far from viewing this way of salvation as irra- 
tional, I see in it all the wisdom of God. In truth, this 
righteousness of Christ, which saves me, is not mine by 
nature : and thus, I learn deeply to humble myself be- 
fore God ; but it is mine to all eternity, by a gift of 
grace : and thus I learn to know the depths of that love 
of God, which enriches me in my great poverty. O 
blessed righteousness, which art not mine, and yet art 
mine ! thou humblest and raisest me up in turn, and thou 
preservest my soul in that sacred harmony of lowliness 
and greatness, which makes it beautiful in the sight of 
God! 

Fourth Harmony. — The faith of those whom Jesus 
healed holds an important position in His miracles. He 
desired to show that it is in this way alone that He will 
save the souls of men. " The word is apprehended by 
means of faith alone," says Melanchthon.* Grace is as 
though it existed not for us, if we do not believe that it 
exists. Of what use would it be to me that a-wealthy 
and powerful man should have left his property to me, 
if I rejected every proof of it which was laid before me? 
But this faith, which is the instrument by means of 
which I receive salvation, is not a meritorious condition 
of it. It is a great error (and is particularly the error 

* Verbum tantumfide apprehenditur. 



THE MIRACLES *, OR, TWO ERRORS. 457 

of Rome) to invent a faith of which love and good 
works are ingredients, and by means of which man 
merits mercy. I must be justified before I can believe 
that I am ; and God must already have adopted me as 
His son before I can know that He has done so. It is 
not faith that produces this truth ; it is this truth that 
produces faith in me. If the sick who were cured by 
Christ had believed that it was they who, by means of 
their faith, healed themselves, they would have done the 
very contrary of what Jesus Christ required of them 
and would have remained in their wretchedness forever. 
Let us, then, understand in this, too, the harmony be- 
tween the facts and the doctrines of Christianity. "By 
grace are ye saved through faith." # 

Fifth Harmony. — Christ reveals Himself in His mir- 
acles as communicating life. The first act by which 
He displayed His glory at Cana shows, under an earth- 
ly figure, His power to give life, and to change the 
weakest things to the strongest. When He multiplied 
the loaves, He presented Himself to the multitude as 
the Being who gave " that meat which endureth unto 
everlasting life."-)- When He raised the dead, He de- 
clared that He was " the resurrection and the life, and 
that he that believeth in Him, though he were dead, yet 
shall he live." J The miracles of Jesus Christ, therefore, 
declare to all men that He communicates divine life. 
Jesus is not satisfied with calling man ; He creates 
something new within him. Those learned men who 
analyze and discover every thing are ignorant of the 
most glorious life that exists in the world, unless they 
themselves have been " born of God." What ! when 
Jesus Christ gave life to a withered arm, to paralyzed 
limbs, to a dumb tongue, to a body lying in the tomb, 
shall He not give life to the soul of man, which is "dead 

* Eph., ii., 8, t John, vi., 27. t Ibid., xi. s 25, 

Q a 



458 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

in trespasses and sins ?" No ; he who, believing in su- 
pernatural works, is satisfied with an ordinary, animal, 
intellectual, or even moral life, without receiving divine 
life in his heart, has not understood the miracles of 
the Redeemer, and has drawn no advantage from 
them. 

SrxTH Harmony.— The miracles show us the union 
which exists between God's free salvation and man's 
works. Shall we say that, because Christ loosened 
the tongue of the dumb man, the dumb man will not 
speak? or that, because He straightened the limbs of 
the paralytic, the paralytic will not walk? On the con- 
trary, since these unfortunate men have been healed by 
Jesus Christ, they will act, speak, and walk now. And 
yet this is what men deny respecting the doctrine of 
Christianity. They constantly repeat, that to attribute 
salvation to Jesus Christ alone is to prevent a man 
from performing good works. When the means of 
preventing a man from seeing shall be to restore his 
sight, then we shall understand how it can be, that to 
place the love of God in a man's heart is the means of 
hindering him from performing the will of God. " It is 
a base calumny," says Melanchthon (for this is an old 
accusation), " to say that we do not teach the doctrine 
of good works ; since we not only require works, but 
we also show how they can be performed." Yes, the 
doctrine of justification through faith is the real doctrine 
of works. Far from impeding the performance of them, 
it produces them. It takes away every impure motive 
from our hearts — selfishness, pride, love of reward — 
and replaces them by the purest and most powerful 
motives. If you tell me that this doctrine, by taking 
away the intrinsic defect which naturally cleaves to all 
human actions, even to those which have the best ap- 
pearance, is opposed to those actions, then I will main- 



THE MIRACLES ; OR, TWO ERRORS. 459 

tain that the operation by means of which a mortified 
limb is cut off kills the body instead of saving it. The 
faith which I have in God's love to me produces God's 
love within me ; and, instead of the discord of sin, it 
establishes in my soul a sacred harmony with its Crea- 
tor. The moderns have discovered mechanical powers, 
by means of which they multiply to an almost infinite 
extent the labor and the products of man. Faith, in the 
spiritual world, is a more wonderful power than all 
those of the material world. Steam drives its cars 
and ships with great rapidity ; faith draws from their 
families those humble missionaries, who, forsaking all 
things, go and raise the banner of Jesus Christ in the 
ends of the earth, even among cannibals. 

Seventh Harmony. — Christ reveals Himself in His 
miracles as " God manifest in the flesh." If the stand- 
ards of enemies, carried before a triumphal car, display 
the glory of a conqueror, and if bounty and mercy an- 
nounce that a kind monarch is passing through his 
provinces, then the sick suddenly cured, the evil spirits 
driven- away, nature, anew subjected to the power of 
Him who created it, the dead arising from their tombs, 
manifest the glory of God made man.* The apostles 
did not possess the constant gift of working miracles ; 
otherwise, would not Paul have cured his friends Titus 
and Epaphroditus immediately? But Jesus possessed 
it continually, and He Himself offers this fact as a proof 
of His divinity. ** My Father," said He, <" worketh 
hitherto, and I work." And the Jews understood per- 
fectly that by these w 7 ords He "made Himself equal 
with God? Jesus replied, to confirm them in this opin- 
ion, " What things soever the Father doeth, these also 
doeth the Son likewise. The Son quickeneth whom 

* Qusecumque enim miracula o&tendit mundo, totidem Divines ejus poten- 
tial testimonia fuerunt,— Calvin. 



460 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

He will ; that all men should honor the Son, even as 
they honor the Father."* 

When, with the Universal Church, we believe in the 
great miracle of the divinity of Christ, the whole Scrip- 
ture becomes clear to our minds. The miracles, espe- 
cially, astonish us no longer ; they are the natural works 
of His divinity, just as the ordinary labor of every day 
is to us. They are miracles, as Sartorius remarks, not 
for Him, but for our inferior natures ; in the same way 
that, on a lower scale, our actions are miraculous to the 
beasts, not because they are above nature in general^ 
but because they are above their nature in particular. 
Listening to what the miracles proclaim, I therefore, to- 
gether with the apostles, worship, in Jesus, the Lord of 
Heaven, the Word, the Author of all the manifestations 
of God, of all His creations, of all the works destined to- 
prepare that redemption which the God of revelation; 
has made for man. 

Such are the harmonies which exist between the facts 
and the doctrines of Christianity.- But the very effects 
of these doctrines present another relation to us. The 
miracles of Christ proved, in the days of the Gospel,, 
that a power proceeding from God had entered into 
the world ; the doctrines have never ceased, during 
eighteen centuries, to do likewise. ~ The propagation of 
Christianity, and its effects around us and throughout 
the world y are a forcible demonstration of the divinity 
of the Gospel, which the inhabitants of Judea did not 
possess in the days of the Lord. 

" Miracles," says John von Miiller, " were performed 
for the purpose of awakening the contemporaries of 
Jesus ; a greater miracle was reserved for our days, 
namely, the sight of the concatenation of all human af- 
fairs for the foundation and preservation of this doe- 

* John,v„ 17-19,21, 23. 



THE MIRACLES ; OR, TWO ERRORS. 461 

trine." If the first acts of the Church were sufficient to 
lead the contemporaries of Jesus to believe, what shall 
take place now that this humble beginning has been 
changed into a magnificent triumph ? Christianity is a 
perpetual miracle. " The ocular witnesses of Jesus 
Christ," says Lessing, "saw nothing but the foundation ; 
but we have the building itself. And now that I see 
that building, which has lasted with such firmness for 
so many ages, I know that its foundations are good and 
true ; and I know it more certainly than those could 
who saw those foundations laid." 

Such are the intimate harmonies which exist between 
the facts and the doctrines of Christianity ; and it is thus 
that the essence of the latter was already contained in 
the former. 

Let men renounce, then, that fatal error through 
which they would fain separate the doctrines from the 
miracles, and receive one and reject the other. Let 
them understand that this is to sacrifice religion, and to 
compensate themselves with a vague and empty thing, 
which brings nothing to the soul. Let them forsake the 
religion of Nicodemus and come to that of Jesus Christ. 
Let our Christianity be really distinct from all miracu- 
lous superstitions, whether past or present, as its founda- 
tion and essence is the great mystery of godliness. 

I am not satisfied with hearing the trumpets whose 
loud voices proclaim the king's approach, but I hasten 
to behold him myself. I am not satisfied with hearing 
the bells which are rung in full chorus, but I enter into 
the sanctuary and worship. I am not satisfied with a 
religion of miracles ; I must have the true God and eter- 
nal life. 

O how much more beautiful do the miracles them- 
selves appear to me, when I look upon them as living 
symbols, in which I find the image of all the truths 
Qa2 



462 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS, 

which save me. Then they are not a dead body ; they 
have a soul, a life, which is peculiar to them ; and their 
existence has an object, for they lead me into the path 
of peace. These truths are what I want ; for them my 
soul thirsts ; to them I would hasten. I seize, I em- 
brace, I grasp them, and exclaim, O my God ! place 
them in my heart; and may I myself, quickened by them, 
like a corpse raised to life, be a miracle of Thy love ! 



Having refuted, under the name of Rationalism, the 
doctrine which rejects miracles, we have opposed, un- 
der the name of superstition, that which makes mira- 
cles the essential part of religion. 

This, w T e have seen, is a superstition very different 
from ordinary superstitions, and which is, in many re- 
spects, far superior to them, since it relates to truths, 
and not to fables. But, w T e repeat, there are certain 
truths which, viewed in an exclusive manner, become 
errors. It is true, very true, that man has a body ; 
but if nothing but the body be considered in man, and 
if the soul be regarded as a doubtful or unimportant 
thing, then we fall into an error which borders so close- 
ly on materialism, that that name may be applied to it. 

Just so it is with a Christian, or a Church, who con- 
siders and professes nothing but miracles in Christianity. 
This is an error so similar to superstition, that that name 
may justly be given to it. 

But if, in one aspect, this superstition is preferable to 
ordinary superstitions, in another aspect it is less desira- 
ble. Indeed, the latter add, but do not diminish ; where- 
as that to which I allude takes away the most essential 
doctrines of Christianity : the Trinity, the fall, and orig- 
inal, hereditary, and complete corruption of man, the 
incarnation of the Eternal Word, the real divinity of 



THE MIRACLES ; OR, TWO ERRORS." 463 

the Redeemer, the expiation by blood on the cross, re- 
generation by the Holy Spirit, justification by faith, cre- 
ation of the new man unto good works, and election by 
grace. This particular kind of superstition, which is to 
be found in certain men who are enlightened by all the 
light of the age, savors greatly, therefore, of infidelity. 

Hitherto there have been two kinds of infidelity in 
the Christian Church. 

One of them (the preferable) is that of which we have 
just spoken, which is superstition in one aspect, and in- 
fidelity in another. 

The other is that more radical infidelity which denies 
both the doctrines and the facts. 

The former belongs peculiarly to the Western nations 
of Europe, and to America. It is the religion of the 
Unitarians in Switzerland, France, England, and the 
United States. 

The latter is found especially among the German ra- 
ces. Saxony is now its most powerful center. These 
strong-minded nations do not stop half way, like our 
more enervated populations. Of what use, they have 
said, is it to keep a revelation, when there is no longer 
any thing to reveal ; a pedestal, when there is no statue 
to place on it ? And they have overthrown at once the 
dogmas and the facts. These are the Rationalists. 

There is more consistency and candor in the Ration- 
alist system, which rejects every thing, than in the me- 
diate systems, which would unite truth with error. 
Nevertheless, in another aspect, Rationalism is a greater 
evil than Unitarianism. The latter preserves at least 
the great fact of a revelation ; and this primary idea is 
a basis upon which a truly celestial doctrine might at 
some time arise. The pedestal without the statue is 
useless ; but it is a witness that one is wanting, and it 
calls for one. 



464 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

The Rationalism of the German race has lately, we 
are informed, given the first token of its invasion of the 
country of the Gallic and British races. This doctrine, 
which had hitherto stopped at the limits of the German 
tongue, has now, we are told, crossed the frontier. We 
pass rapidly by this fact, as we are disposed to regard 
it, above all, as an act of sincerity ; and w T e come to a 
reflection which is connected with it. 

This commencement of invasion is an event in the 
Church. It was a great event for the world when, in 
the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, the invasion by the 
German race, in those same regions, then in a state of 
corrupt civilization, took place. It is true that, at that 
time, there w r as already reason to hope that the irruption 
of those barbarous nations which poured down upon an 
enervated people, w r ould become an instrument, in the 
hand of God, to renovate the Roman people, and to es- 
tablish throughout Europe a new nation and a new faith 
on the ruins of ancient polytheism and the ancient na- 
tions. But it is no less true that these German tribes at 
first brought nothing but desolation and death in their 
train, and seemed every where to destroy the little cul- 
tivation and religion which still existed. 

Without wishing to make any comparison, the state 
of things is somewhat analogous. Unitarianism will 
perhaps be an easy conquest for German Rationalism. 
Long have these two doctrines advanced hand in hand. 
The crowd of Unitarians will not escape ; they gravi- 
tate toward Rationalism. It is not the fathers, but the 
children who will fall in ; it is not the masters, but the 
disciples. 

Nevertheless, let us not fear ! There is a vast differ- 
ence between the invasion with which German Ration- 
alism threatens us and that of the ancient Germans. 
Then those terrible nations met with no power capable 



THE MIRACLES ; OR, TWO ERRORS. 465 

of stopping them. Now, thanks be to God ! there is, in 
those Gallic and British races, and in the German races 
themselves, an energetic power, the power of the Christ- 
ian's faith, which boldly rises and opposes that devasta- 
ting torrent. This faith overcomes the world ; and 
Unitarianism, Rationalism, and all anti-Christian powers 
must be sacrificed to it. Thanks be to God ! all these 
human instructions are but isolated and ephemeral ap- 
paritions. The Church of Christ in Germany, Switzer- 
land, France, England, Holland, America, and the whole 
world, will arise, if need be, like one man, and, defend- 
ing both doctrines and facts, will proclaim with one 
voice and heart " the great mystery of godliness : God 

MANIFEST IN THE FLESH." 

Still farther : the greatest excesses of Arianism, after 
Arius and Athanasius, alarmed the more religious semi- 
Arians, enlightened them, and, uniting them to the or- 
thodox, brought them back to the sound doctrines of 
revelation. 

May we not hope for the same victory in our day ? 
Shall we not see noble and pious souls, which have in- 
deed been drawn for some time- into a mournful opposi- 
tion to the truth, enlightened now by the evils which 
the invasion of Rationalism will bring in its train, cast- 
ing themselves with grief, but with love, at the feet of 
the Savior, exclaiming, like the disciple, for a short time 
unbelieving, " My Lord and my God V* 

This would be the first good result which God would 
draw out of so great an evil ; and then there would be 
great joy on earth and in heaven. 

Nevertheless, let us be on our guard ! A new error 
has appeared. To your tents, O Israel ! Let us stand 
before the Church of Jesus Christ, firm in our faith in 
His miracles, and firm in our faith in His mysteries; 
these are the two pillars upon which Christianity rests. 



466 DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS. 

But let us remember that which these pillars are 
called to sustain and to give to the world, namely, the 
perfume of a holy life, full of hope and love. A man 
may believe in the miracle, and admit the doctrine, and 
yet be nothing more than a tinkling cymbal. If the 
great wonder, in the days of the Gospel, w T as Christ 
manifest in the flesh, the great miracle in our days must 
be Christ manifest in us by a life of Christ, a life of 
heaven, a life of gentleness, meekness, righteousness, 
peace, and love. This is the object in the attainment 
of which all the miracles and the doctrines end. With- 
out miracles and without doctrines, there can be no 
Christian life ; but without Christian life, miracles and 
doctrines are nothing. O how beautiful is that miracle 
which can elicit from the world, as in the primitive 
ages, the exclamation, " See how they love one an- 
other !" 

Send Thy Church that miracle, Lord ! It is the only 
one we ask. Clothed with that power, Thy redeemed 
will conquer the gates of the nations, and the cross 
will be planted on the walls of every people ! 



THE END. 



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